Silent Inaba
by LadyLunarPhoenix
Summary: “As long as you're in Inaba, don't be awake at night when the fog rolls in.” Mother never said there would be nights like 'these' though. It's time to bring the Wild Card into Inaba.
1. Chapter 1

Silent Inaba

Beta:

Written by: Lady Lunar Phoenix

* * *

"My my, it seems we have a guest."

Blue and black, with clear windows that showed a fog that enveloped the... the what? It had all the ear marks of a high class limo, from the soft cushion seats to the bar with drinks and glasses provided. A small table rested at the other end of the vehicle while a rather odd looking man sat there. His head was bald, the rest of his hair was gray with age and hung down like a short curtain to his shoulders. He had a long hooked nose and eyes that were wide with incredible insight, knowledge and maybe a hint of madness.

Or maybe Souji was the mad man for dreaming this up? On his right sat a young woman, who didn't seem to notice his presence at the moment. She wore a uniform that was blue. In fact the whole place seemed to have only two real colors, blue and black. She wore blue while the stranger wore black. But her hair was a golden blond in color held by a slender headband. It was lightly curled and framed a calm face. Her bright blond hair and young healthy skin tone was the only color that wasn't eerie in presentation.

"Where am I?"

"You are in what is called the 'Velvet Room', it can take any number of forms as per needed by someone who has entered a Contract." The strange man explained. His voice was mysterious, a storyteller's type of voice that could command an audience and at the moment, was commanding Souji. Neither high pitched nor booming, it came off more like kindly old grandfather who had lost his mind. The kindness never left the tone, but leave at the door any hope of understanding him.

Outside the fog was white, the light beyond it was blue.

"I am here to help guide you to your destiny. A terrible event is rapidly approaching, that will severe you from your path. My job is to help you resolve those issues. The only thing I ask in return, is that you abide by the contract and take full responsibility for your actions." The rule about dreams was that you could not feel anything that you did not feel in the real world. The seat Souji sat on? That felt of velvet, the air tickling his nose was had that manufactured scent from an air conditioner, and the taste on Souji's tongue was of blood.

Outside the fog was white, the light beyond it was red.

The man didn't move much, his hands stayed steeple like the roof of a church, or a man deciding the fate of the one before him. Occasionally he broke the links of fingers to gesture in some small way. Yet his rare use of his hands made even that seem important.

"My destiny?"

"Everyone has multiple destinies that exist as they travel down the path known as Life. But each destiny has it's own turn that a person can take. Yours, however, has been forcibly altered into this particular direction." This time the woman spoke.

Outside the fog was red, the light beyond it black.

"My name is Igor, and this is my assistant Margaret, we will help you within the limits of the contract," Igor stated, as a sudden force seemed to slam into the 'Velvet Room'. He was knocked to his right, while 'Igor' held on to table to keep from being flung to the side as well.

"What's going on!?"

Another blow this time sending Souji tumbling to his left.

"It seems that, what is controlling your current destination would like to welcome you personally!" Igor shouted to him as the world went black.

The next thing Souji heard was the mechanical voice of the train telling him his stop was coming up. Snapping him awake and back into the real, not blue and black limo, world. He stood up from his seat, pulling out his carry on before leaving to the docking area. 'Mom never said much about Inaba save...' A piercing pain struck the center of his forehead. Crying out in pain he staggered back with his hands gripping his head. The pain was sharp, sudden and right in the center of his eyes it felt.

The doors before him slid open and he stepped out blindly onto the loading dock of the train station. For a moment all he knew was the pain in his head, even as a strong hand gripped his arm and held him steady. "You ok son? You don't look good."

Pulling his hand from his face, Souji saw an older man standing beside him. The firm square shape of a face, with stubble and slightly unkept black hair as though he had just gotten off work. Indeed the man was carrying his coat over his shoulder and the tie wasn't as tight as it should have been.

Blinking Souji looked about noticing a small girl at the man's side, peering up at him concerned and caution warring on her features. "This is my daughter 'Nanako', and you must be my nephew Souji." The man said as Souji turned his eyes back onto the stranger. "I'm your uncle Dojima, Ryotoro, I'm your mother's younger brother," he explained, while the pain faded from Souji's head.

"Yes, thank you for taking me in like this," Souji managed to utter, as he finally got his wits together and began to mentally settle himself in. He shouldered his bag as Dojima walked off still holding his arm.

"Don't worry about it, but about your headache. Do you need to see a doctor?" Dojima asked his voice concerned.

Souji could see something of his mother in the concern this man showed in his eyes, but Souji was pretty self sufficient on his own. Then again, Souji had to be, what with how often his parents and him moved about. Souji could cook, clean and take care of himself, why did he have to go to a town that his mother refused to go back to? For that matter refused to let them visit? 'Mom how desperate were you when you sent me here?' After all that little speech about the do's and don'ts of Inaba had been off the wall weird. Even for her.

And mom was weird.

"_As long as you're in Inaba, don't be awake at night when the fog rolls in."_


	2. Chapter 2

Silent Inaba

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta:

A/N: I need to stop taking up Kink Meme suggestions...

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

"You've already been signed up for classes, it's a shame that you would have to start so quickly after arriving. Seriously though, if you need to see a doctor let me know." Dojima called over his shoulder to the teen behind him. Before noticing that his daughter was squirming. "Something wrong Nanako? Do you need to go to the rest room?"

Wham! The small girl sent her fist out like a piston and punched her dad in the arm for that remark. Dojima broke into a small fit of boisterous laughter as he drove along, the sound being infectious enough to get Souji to smile. "Well I need to fill the tank up anyways, so I'll pull in here and you can go." He told his daughter as he guided the car into the gas station, parking beside an available pump. Standing out in the evening dusk was a lone attendant in solid reds, whites and a darker color lost to the growing darkness. All three of them climbed out of the car, Dojima stretched before looking about getting a cigarette loose from his pack as he moved. Nanako was off walking towards where the attendant instructed.

Which left Souji by himself staring out into the darkening shadows of Inaba. Just him and a lone attendant whose face was hidden under the bill of his cap. The teen, and he had to be just maybe a year older then Souji himself, stood by the car while it filled up. "So you new or returning here for a trip?" He asked offhandedly.

It took a moment for Souji to realize that someone was talking to him before he turned to speak to the attendant. "New, my mom is from here, but I'll be staying with family for a year." He explained with a faint, careless shrug before trying to return to his own little world.

"Well, there's not much to do around here, sides school and work. You could work here if you want, we're always looking for part timers even if you're in high school." The Attendant nonchalantly shrugged before giving a small gesture to indicate the town. "It's pretty boring, and the air just smells of gas."

It was a lame joke, but it was a pleasant welcome that wasn't from a mandatory welcoming committee. Souji laughed accepting the welcome as the teen extended his hand to Souji in which he answered in kind. The grip was firm, and was given with confidence when suddenly another piercing pain shot through Souji's skull. It was akin to grabbing a live wire, or an electrical charge, racing up his nerves before slamming into his core. For a moment all he saw was lightning and fire dancing behind his eyelids as he lost all connection to his body. The world dropped from under him sending him into a free fall without a bottom in sight.

The fog outside the limo returned, in blues and reds the black a constant as lightning flashed between particles. He could hear something close to him, like a flag snapping in hurricane force winds. It gripped him wrapping around him like a blanket against the the fog invading his senses until it was ripped away. Leaving him standing before a clueless Gas Station Attendant who was looking at him with mild concern.

"Sorry, I've been having a serious headache for the past day." He replied to the look as he straightened himself. Just in time it would seem as Dojima and Nanako were walking back to the car by then. He smoothed out his features to try and hide this unexplained attack to his senses. Perhaps he needed to see a doctor? But first he needed to get settled in, maybe the stress of constantly moving had gotten to him? He climbed back into the car without another word hoping he avoided Dojima's attention at his second attack. The car ride the rest of the way was quiet, Dojima didn't seem to have an ability to talk to others without it coming off like an interrogation.

The house was amid a play of shadows and light, from the darkness of the night to the false light created by the street light. It made the dark windows more like empty eyes staring out into the night while the false light gave it a living face. Useless in their efforts to see what went on around it, closed off in the same way that Souji was. Souji got out of the car and followed them into the house, taking in what a real house looked like. Not temporary like what he was used to, uprooting meant nothing was placed in the same place twice. But this was a house that had been lived in, Nanako easily took off into the kitchen area and began rooting around.

"Up stairs first door to your right is your bedroom, your stuff has already arrived and been left up there. Dinner will be probably ready in about half an hour." He instructed Souji before moving off to the couch to relax for a bit.

Souji nodded as he turned his steps up towards the hall and the stairwell, the same sense of eternal disconnection following him. The scent carried on the air was new, the wood under his hands was new, the only thing that was old was his clothes. He couldn't even feel as though this was a short term event. Because in the end, he didn't have a 'home' to go back to. Once his parents returned he'd just be shuffled off to a new location and start all over again. Step by step he took up the stairs before opening the door to his temporary loggings and flipping on the light. A black leather couch of mild modern design, boxes of his things. Empty shelves and a TV that sat across from a window that was above the couch. Beyond that against the wall was a futon for him.

Souji dropped his bag on the couch before he began routing around for his bed clothes, the boxes were poorly labeled. Insurance against someone looking to steal possible valuables during transport. A box listed for old news papers was opened revealing his collection of books, another box listed rags provided a portion of his clothes.

"_You'll like Inaba. It's a quiet little place, nothing like the city, but close enough to Okina that you won't die of boredom. It's peaceful, without the rush of a city that you've had to deal with all the time." His mother noted calmly as he quietly worked on packing away his clothes, again. _

"_If it's such a nice place, why haven't we ever gone there? In fact why haven't you ever talked about Inaba?"_

"_We've been there..." she sounded slightly defensive, yet not wounded at her son's indifferent tone of voice._

"_If you say so." Souji replied as he folded up another shirt and placed it inside the box that would be mailed off soon._

"_You were only a baby back then, so I know you don't recall back then." She admitted behind him as he worked._

"Dinner's ready Souji!" Dojima's voice broke into his thoughts causing him to turn away from the boxes and drawers. He dusted off his hands before washing his hands and rejoining the Dojima's. Sitting at the place offered him while the TV was turned on, so they could have something to watch.

"Tonight's breaking story in the Entertainment World is a follow up on the news from this afternoon's broadcast. As Television Broadcaster; Yamano, Mayumi was revealed to be having an affair with Council Secretary; Namatame, Taro. This was revealed by Namatame's estranged wife the Enka Singer, Hiiragi, Misuzu. Right now it is unknown if she will seek damages from this affair as she is currently on tour out of the country."

"As of today, all of Yamano-san's appearances and shows have been canceled due to the scandal. But really, did they think they would get away with this?"

"How are you holding up Souji? If your head is still bothering you..." Dojima let the sentence drift to a stop, while Nanako watched the show.

"I'll be fine Uncle, I don't know what caused it, but I assure you that I'll be ok." He replied politely. He lowered his eyes back to his meal, avoiding that probing look from his uncle regarding that odd sudden attack.

"Oh! It's Junes!" Nanako's childish voice lifted up in surprise and delight as she became even more absorbed by a commercial for the mega store chain. Going so far as to singing the jingle along with the commercial. He listened to her chat about school with her dad for a bit before quietly excusing himself to go to bed. There was no reason to be involved with this pair, he would be gone in a year. His mother had told him that his cousin's mother died in an accident. Children needed stable environments, they didn't need people who kept coming and going. Souji would leave eventually, like he left everywhere else.

He was an expert on unwilling departures, having been forced to say 'good bye' to the things he knew so many times that he forgot what knowing was. No one stood out strong in his memories, over the years everyone became faceless, nameless. It wouldn't surprise him if no one remembered him from everywhere else he had been. People learned through reinforcement, take out the person and the memories faded over time. He would fade away in time.

Washing up for bed, he prepared his futon before finally lying down to recover from the trip.

The first time is always the same, surrounded by an unfamiliar darkness with his sense of direction completely skewed. The blankets were always different, the futons always fresh with the tint of the air where it was kept. So many little things to remind Souji that he was somewhere else again. Like where the wall was supposed to be was nothing save air, thus with a sigh he rolled over and resumed trying to find the wall. The scent he had assumed that came from the futon was off on second thought as well. It was also harder then he remembered... He reached again for a wall only to have his hand meet open air again, causing him to sit up as he finally opened his eyes.

This was NOT the Dojima's residence.

The stones he found under him were clean, vibrant red, cut into bricks that had been laid out in a staggering fashion. While all around him was fog, the wall that his futon was supposed to rest against was no where to be seen. The 'futon' he was supposed to be sleeping in was gone as well as his bed clothes. Beside his hand rested a long single bladed sword a blade he didn't have in his possession. Standing up amid the fog he found himself looking around again hoping the elevated stance would help him. But only darken fog consumed the world around him, lightning dancing in the distance. As he watched the lightning dance he could almost feel as though he was standing among storm clouds. There was a sense of freedom in that as lightning lit the way. Without thought he picked up the sword before walking down the path set before him.

"So blindly?"

Souji's widened in surprise at that spoken voice, that pushed itself out of the fog and yet seemed to have no force behind it. Confused he stopped and looked about, the fog in the distance seemed to have grown darker. But he couldn't make out any other person in the fog with him. He continued walking down the path of red stones the naked sword in one hand while he kept his eyes peeled for something to see.

"What are you looking for?"

The voice was cold, methodical and curious, detached from the surroundings in the way a scientist was detached from it's lab rat. It was a voice that sounded as though it came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. He couldn't fathom where the source was from or even the closeness of the speaker. But if there was a voice, then there was a person in this fog with him, though he couldn't recall at all a person with a voice like this. Beyond him he could see a cone of light passing through the fog like a car through the night. But the walkway he was on didn't extend that way so he would have to hope he found the path to that car. At least it didn't look like it was speeding past him while the lightning seemed to flicker about it the most as though the lightning was focusing there.

"Why don't you say something? It's easier when everything is hidden, no one likes the truth despite what they say."

The car, he was in a Limo before and it struck him then that the car in the distance could be the car from his dream? After all the fog matched the odd fog he saw in his dream, perhaps he could get back there? He was surprised to find himself actually a bit worried over the fate of the two other occupants of the vehicle. And began trying to find a path that would take him closer to the lights in the distance.

Something had wrapped itself around his ankles tangling him to the ground. His free hand reached on instinct to get whatever around his ankles undone when he noted how his clothes had changed. From jeans and shirts to some old traditional robe that he distantly recognized as what the gods were occasionally depicted as wearing. This officially made no sense as Lucidity during dreams meant the dreamer had control over the dream. Souji was pretty confident that he didn't decide he wanted a change of attire in this place.

"No that would be my desire for your change of clothes."

He blinked as he looked up into the fog wondering officially who was the woman talking to him. He got the robes untangled when hands reached out from the fog to grab him from behind. Wrapped around him in a strangely familiar embrace yet when he reached up he couldn't feel any arms around him. Alarmed he took a step forward trying to escape the slender arms about his chest. The sensation of the arms still around him didn't change even as he moved, as though someone was still holding him. Which wasn't as bad as what he 'saw' which instead of arms were maggots that withered up his chest seeking the inside of his mouth and nose. Making him fall back gagging as he tried to get the invading vile things out of him.

"Even now you deny the truth?"


	3. Chapter 3

Silent Inaba:

Written by: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta: No one is brave enough to touch the amount of chaos I can create.

A/N: I was going to mass dump all my fics... But APPARENTLY everyone thinks I'm dead when I stall like that... So here. I'm a little edgy about my 'Riddle in a Romance' fic to post first.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Morning came with a choking gasp as Souji started, sitting up in alarm. Ahead of him was the desk that came with the room, to the side of it was the small couch with the window behind that. The curtains cut off the light from outside, while the table before it rested before the couch. Boxes here, suitcase there, a dresser next to him, he couldn't decide if the dream was more disturbing or the fact that the room he was in felt as real as the fog. Getting up, he put up the futon before putting on his clothes donning yet 'another' different school uniform.

"Seta-san! Breakfast is ready!"

For Souji, breakfast meant making his own meal, hell 'any' meal meant him making it himself. Thus coming down stairs to find his shy, little cousin having set the table for breakfast was a new experience. Now apparently he was getting something that just wasn't 'instant' insert word?

"Thank you Nanako-chan for making breakfast," he greeted the smaller girl as she busied herself around the kitchen.

"You're welcome."

She moved along, hiding her nervousness by pretending he wasn't there. "Don't worry Nanako-chan. Before you know it the year will be up and I'll be gone again." She stopped at his words and looked up at him for a moment. She was guarded, curious, but her caution got the best of her and she went back to the sink.

He sat down before beginning his breakfast noting as he did so that it was all instant stuff. Still his curiosity got the best of him, "you can cook?"

"Yes, I'm not allowed to use the stove though," she explained, before turning on the tap to soak the bowls.

"Do you want me to make dinner tonight? I can cook," he pointed out, a simple fact that had developed over the years of being with his parents. Sometimes his mother was just too tired to cook, other times there just wasn't anyone there. Souji was nothing if not self sufficient at least domestically, though he wasn't going to broadcast that fact.

"You can cook?" her eyes reflected her surprise and the curiosity returned as Souji nodded. "I'm not allowed to use the stove, but if you can cook that would be great!"

He nodded between bites while she continued getting ready for school. "Where's Uncle Ryotaro?"

"He already left for work, I'm supposed to show you how to get to the high school. It won't be hard because we share the same road until it splits at the river," she explained. She had a rather high voice, typical of children still growing, young and innocent in tone, but even he could pick up on the subtle undertones of deeper feelings. Her mother was dead, she had no female role models and only one frazzled cop for a dad.

He nodded as he got up and put his dishes into the sink, a simple breakfast without the stove, something that Nanako could handle. Time was ticking away as he gathered up his bag and an umbrella for the walk to school. Inaba was too small to warrant a train or bus to drop a student off. While Nanako gathered up her own bag and umbrella before the pair left the house. It rained through out the walk, and Souji relaxed to the familiar sound of rain falling to the ground. The smell of wet earth was different then the scent of concrete or asphalt, something he wasn't completely used to. But there was something pleasant about the less activities of the place that comforted him.

In time he began to see more children about Nanako's age and up to his and a little over joining them on the road. Occasionally he caught curious expressions on faces before turning his attention back to the road and Nanako. Passing shops, some in sad states of disrepair due to a lack of customers, a run down shrine and houses, until they finally reached the river.

"I have to go this way, but your school is that way," Nanako had stopped walking while she spoke. Her small limb stuck out like a sign post towards the way the teenagers walked. Suddenly something seemed to occur to her as she stuck her fist into her pocket and began rummaging around for something. "Dad gave me this to give to you, so you can get into the house," she explained, her small hand coming out of her pocket. She opened her fist revealing a single brass key with a white string tied around the hoop. He took the key his expression polite while she dropped her hand to her side again.

"Thank you Nanako-chan, I'll see you after school then," he replied, before turning towards the high school while she resumed walking towards her own. The talk of the other students drifted into murmurs amid the tapping of rain drops on his umbrella, a lulling sound that could have sent him into a nap normally. Save the sudden unappealing squeaking that began grating on his ears.

"Out of the way!" Souji stopped and turned to see a reddish brown haired guy riding on a bike in the most out of control fashion Souji had ever seen. He moved out of the way to avoid a collision as the teen continued on as though the bike had no breaks. Down, and down the teen rode until he lost complete control and crashed right into a pile of garbage.

'What a loser...' was all Souji could think as he walked by a guy who was now in a serious amount of pain while on the ground.

*****************************************************************

Speaking of losers...

Souji decided he didn't like this teacher, and was going to be happy to be rid of the jerk once his year was up. He stood at the front before the room he would be learning in while the man rambled on in a vulgar, disrespectful tone. Was this guy really a teacher? Souji had never had a teacher who talked in such a manner to his students. He wasn't inspirational, dignified or respectable in any way, nor did he follow the same traditions of a class introduction. Bent over in a perpetual hunched over stance, his teeth sticking out like a horse. Marooka-san looked like an anorexic jackass braying to be heard.

"You going to tell them your name, Idiot?" the squat, scrawny figure at his side brayed out.

Souji looked around, mockingly making it clear that he was tall enough to look over the smaller teacher. "I don't see anyone here named 'Idiot'," he commented before looking down to stare at Marooka. "Or perhaps you were speaking to yourself?" Disgust made him take a step forward away from the jackass before he addressed the class itself. "My name is Seta, Souji, and though I will be here for only one year, please take care of me."

Everyone in the room was floored, as Marooka was rooted to the spot in disbelief, before he started showing the signs the students knew to mean he was turning livid.

"Ahh Marooka-san! There's a seat here he can have!" A voice from the middle near back of the room called out. Nervous from the atmosphere in tone, yet the hand and voice belonged to a honey tone brunette. Her hair worn in a bob, her school uniform the same typical female style as the girls in the front row. He didn't even wait, instead he took his school bag and made his way over to the seat.

"Ouch, tough luck being stuck in King Moron's class." The brunette whispered to him, as he settled in. Up close she had a slightly rounded face, bright vibrant eyes, and radiated a friendly disposition. There was one in every class, and he knew what to expect from her. Eager explanations of the school and area, assistance when required. Once it was clear he had settled in and no longer required the assistance he would be alone again. There was no point in forming a friendship with someone who he wouldn't be seeing again after the year was up. When he had been young and foolish, he had tried to maintain those friendships, but after a year or two those people had moved on. Long distance 'anything' was impossible. "I'm Satonaka, Chie. Nice to meet you."

"It's a pleasure." he replied his tone polite and calm, having long learned how to behave to encourage assistance without appearing needy. He endured, and with King Moron it 'was' endurance, the first hour and prepared to leave the classroom.

*******************************************************************

"Ah... thank you for letting me borrow the movie, it was totally awesome." That guy, Souji recalled seeing him riding a bike, rather poorly, towards school that day. The red head was standing there with his head head down and the DVD case jutting out from him as though he was apologizing for something.

Souji wondered if they were dating, or perhaps the guy was interested in her. Yet at that moment she opened the DVD case he held out to her. "It's... It's broken! My 'Enter the Dragon'!" Chie proclaimed going through a crash course version of the 'dealing with loss'. The range of the emotions radiated as she and the guy started arguing, or rather her yelling at him, him trying to defend himself. Souji could only smile as he moved off into the hallway seeking his next class, he could only envy them. Until he heard a howl of pain that any man knew, a critical hit.

Each of the teachers he met were decidedly more pleasant then King Moron though he found that the guy from earlier... Well he wasn't going to be paying attention to 'any' of the teachers any time soon.

And Chie was still in her 'help the new student' mode, but he didn't object to it. He had already met several students, both male and female during the day. The guy she kicked was Hanamura, Yosuke, son of the manager of the local Junes store. The same Junes store that Nanako enjoyed so much that she sang their jingle every chance. From there the school clicks began to slip around him as he moved from class to class.

Schools came with labels, it was a fact of life, and having been in so many schools he could read the labels from a mile away. Jocks to the nerds, the typical to the odd guys, the girls had a little more variety though. He ignored the bitches, he had no reason to notice them and knew they weren't the type to make him interested. The nervous, shy girls who braved their natural nervousness to greet him, he responded politely giving them a small encouraging smile. It tended to send them away with a hot blush on their cheeks and giddy giggles. The brainy girls were good for information and well mannered, the tomboys made him smile to himself.

By the end of the first day he had felt out the school enough to get comfortable with what it had to offer. Less in terms of quality or quantity of education, but what it lacked in that it made up for in the close knit feel of everything. Save being in the room with King Moron, it made him wish a house would fall on the Jackass. But at the moment they were simply waiting for the final bell to be rung so they could leave.

"Say Souji? Have you had a chance to look around Inaba yet? We're not a big city, but we're quiet and peaceful, oh but don't think we're boring!" Chie was a country girl apparently, but she was proud of that and it showed in her voice. "Oh! Hey Yukiko come here!" Chie bounded off to collect the long, dark haired girl Souji had seen her with during the day. Red was her color of choice apparently, which conflicted with her name and she carried herself with a calm lady like manner. "This is my friend, Amagi, Yukiko."

Souji knew about her, had even a few guys mention the 'Amagi challenge'. The beautiful, intelligent heiress to a family run Inn. A regular princess, with a whole school full of guys wanting to be her prince. The story going that she had turned down every single guy who had ever asked her out. Said girl arrived more sedately behind Chie, there was something about her that radiated more intelligence in her eyes then in Chie's. But regardless of IQ, Yukiko registered about the same as all the other girls. Easily noted, easily forgotten.

"O-oh hello, I'm Amagi, Yukiko, it is a pleasure to meet you." She carried herself with grace and poise, something expected of someone who was to inherit an Inn known for traditions. She bowed politely for which he returned before they both resettled their attention onto Chie. Pleased that both of them were with her Chie gestured towards the door. Only to be interrupted by the sound system's static as it kicked in.

"All teachers please come to the main office for a meeting. All teachers please come to the main office for a emergency meeting. All students please remain in your classes until further noticed."

"Well isn't that weird?" Chie's head tilted to the side, her eyes expressively showing that she was thinking. "I wonder what's going on?"

"Whatever it is, I hope it is over soon, I need to get back to the Inn," Yukiko replied, turning her attention towards the clock on the wall.

"You've been going straight home for the past few days Yukiko. Is something going on at the Inn? It's not even the busy season yet," Chie pointed out. Standing back from it, Souji could see the dynamics between the pair. With Chie as the more assertive and Yukiko the more quiet one, a typical combination between pairs.

"We've had something come up and I've been helping out more then I normally would this time of the year. Don't worry yourself over it Chie," Yukiko replied, her voice soft.

Souji turned his attention away from the two girls, letting his focus go over to a pair of guys who were speaking near the windows. Only to miss out on their conversation as the sounds of police sirens were heard. Soon everyone was standing, going to the windows to see what was going on outside. Having come from a bigger city, the idea of cop cars didn't alarm Souji as much as it did the others. Though perhaps 'alarmed' was a bit of an extreme word, it was something new so it attracted the crowd.

Above their heads the static then the voice from before came to life causing everyone to focus on that instead. "Students, you are free to leave, however we stress that you should return home immediately. That is all."

"What's going on?" it was the question that floated about the room, first the police sirens and now a cryptic message over the speakers.

"Sorry, this has never happened before so I don't know what to tell you..." Chie came walking back to her desk her expression apologetic towards Souji. "We can walk with you at least part of the way back though if you want!"

'We' apparently meant her and Yukiko, though he didn't mind the company, even though they were girls. It meant that he had connections in the school and the odds were high that any of the more bullish students wouldn't try anything. Though so far he had only seen a few teens about his height so there was a plus in that. But for now he needed to get back to the house, he had a great deal more unpacking he had to do. "You don't have to worry about it, the city was more active then this."

Bags were collected and soon they were with the rest of the student body making their way to the stairs. In this the sea of bodies reminded him of the other schools moving along towards the shoe lockers. Conversations going on all around him while Chie began talking about all the things Inaba had to offer. He was fortunate that she was enough of a tomboy that she didn't bore him to tears with discussing boutiques or such.

He could get comfortable living in a place like this, long fields of green, hills to climb, with cleaner air, and he didn't even have to ignore the outside world to sleep at night. Opening his locker he removed his shoes and slipped them on before walking towards the girls as they got their shoes.

"Come on Yukiko! You have to 'talk' how are you going... oh hey there Souji!" Chie turned a bright infectious smile onto him as she turned her head up to look at him.

Shaking his head in amusement he gestured towards the door, "rain's calling."

"Right, we've been getting a lot of that recently it seems. Which causes it's own problems," she noted with a shrug, but that got his attention.

"Rain's a problem in this area?"

"Only in Inaba, considering the transfor..."

"Yukiko! Of all the things!" Chie hushed her friend quickly eyes wide with shock and disbelief, an odd thing for Souji. Yukiko looked properly chastened, but the words were already out and Souji was curious.

Souji opted to say nothing, rather he raised any eyebrow at the strange comment and decided he would have to grill his uncle later. But his silence was interpreted as not hearing apparently since Chie quickly readjusted the conversation towards more normal things. She dominated the conversation between the three of them. It was clear as they continued she was trying to pull Yukiko into a conversation, but it always met with the girl growing quiet.

"You know Yukiko's family runs the Amagi Inn, it's famous! They have a hot spring that's been in popular magazines!"

"Chie!" Yukiko was blushing something fierce as they came upon a series of flashing lights.

Souji's attention was averted to the lights while Chie and Yukiko argued about Chie's comment. Thus leaving him to see the police cars lining the streets as well as a number of cops walking the area as rain fell steadily over all of them. Vivid blue glinted off of windows, tossed shadows from this cloudy day into odd shapes. Blue and white were a mix of colors that brought back to mind that velvet room. A crackle that snapped and popped in his ears drowning out the sound of the girls chattering in the background.

He didn't realize he was walking again until something bumped into him knocking him right into one of the police cars.

"Adachi! Damn it what kind of officer can't hold his stom..." Dojima could be heard roaring out his displeasure when he caught sight of Souji. "Souji? What are you do-... oh that's right, you're school is near by isn't it?"

"What happened here?" Chie asked coming up from somewhere behind Souji as he straightened himself out. "And is he ok?" 'He' being the guy currently vomiting in the ditch.

"Police business, you kids need to go home, and don't worry about Adachi," Dojima stated as he turned a baleful eye on his partner. Eyes harden from experience, his expression one of stern discipline that caused the girls to keep from asking any further. Souji nodded preparing to leave when Dojima spoke once more to him, "let Nanako know I'll be late coming home tonight."

He nodded in answer about to walk of when Chie grabbed his arm, "sorry I guess we should skip going to Junes today."

"Junes?" he asked wondering if he had missed something, was he supposed to go somewhere?

"Yeah I suggested we go to Junes just a moment ago before you walked over here," she pointed out patiently, a thoughtful look of concern on her face.

Was it something she had said while he heard the crackling sound? Why 'had' he heard that strange sound? Was it something to do with the headache that had come over him yesterday? But even as he pondered he realized that she was waiting for an answer. "Sorry, I just lost focus for a moment there, the trip and coming to school the very next day."

The eyes, large and so emotional turned sympathetic in an instant, "oh and here I am just... Okay! No problem we can hang out later! So just go home and get some proper rest."

He nodded accepting the out given to him, waving good bye to the pair before turning his path back to his temporary residence. First the visions, then the headaches, now sounds? Maybe he needed to see about getting some time with a doctor and have a physical conducted. Over time the other teenagers who were heading home began to break away from the same path he was on, leaving him with a few stragglers and his thoughts.

Arriving to the Dojima residence, he shook out his umbrella before unlocking the front door with the key Nanako had provided him. Shoes off, slippers on, he stuck the umbrella in a large holder so it could dry. It was as typical and normal for him as any day until a young voice broke his normal solitude. "Welcome back." He actually had to stop and process that comment for a moment. Nanako was sitting beside the table with the television on. But for the moment she had turned her head to look at him as he walked into the house.

"Thanks," he replied finally when he realized an answer would be required. The cops had not been near the direction that Nanako would have taken to return. With that in mind he opted to put his bag on the chair in the kitchen area. "Uncle Ryotaro looks to be on a new case, so he said he would be late coming back."

Nanako didn't seemed phased by the idea of being home without her dad during the night, even with Souji there she was calm. Which unnerved him while he turned his attention to the fridge, "I'll start cooking in an hour or two. Unless you want me to start now?"

"No, that would be fine, dad does this a lot and we often just end up eating side dishes, anyways. But if you can make something that would be great," she called out from her side of the table. Nodding he turned his attention to opening the door and realizing that... there wasn't a lot of food that went into that fridge.

"Nanako-chan, you realize that in order to grow up you need to eat right?" he called from the fridge before he shut the thing.

"Yes?" she sounded curious at such a comment, but he could only shake his head.

"So how do you expect to eat when the fridge is empty?" leaning against the fridge with his arms crossed, he watched her looking at him. Her small hands covering her mouth as she stifled a giggle as he arched an eyebrow at her. Really this fridge just looked internally sad and lonely. "I'm good, but boiling water isn't exactly full of flavor."

"It's ok, I haven't been able to go shopping yet. We can order out if you want," she offered, but the idea that a small girl was doing the shopping? This girl really 'was' alone if she was being forced to do all the house hold chores.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded before getting up and walking into the kitchen area heading towards a drawer, "it's that or leftovers."

"Well in that case I'll turn on the rice cooker, then tomorrow I'll see if I can pick up something from the store."

Place action to thought, as Nanako opened a drawer showing where the menu's for all the take out and delivery places were. Well at least they wouldn't go hungry in the worst case scenario. But regardless he got washed up before he began working on the rice for their dinner. It was somewhere between plating the rice and heating up the left overs that his Uncle returned to their surprise. Walking into the house with an exhausted, wet look.

"I thought you were going to be late," Nanako asked as she ran up to meet her dad. While the man peeled off the coat he had been wearing.

"Rain got too hard and they gave up, but I'll be on call if anything else comes up," he explained, before he walked over to drop himself onto the couch that rested against the wall. On the opposite side of the room from him in the corner rested the TV. With Dojima back, Nanako quietly changed the channel to the local news.

"Tonight we have a breaking story in the Namatame, Yamano affair. Unfortunately it has ended in tragedy as Yamano, Mayumi was discovered dead today..."

"Not even a day and they're already all over the case," Dojima grumbled as Souji brought over the bowls of rice, the side dishes being warmed up.

"... yeah despite the situation though, the death of Ms. Yamano is still a tragic event. "

The TV carried on even as Nanako came and helped bring the dishes over to the table to be eaten. Quickly everything was put on the table while the entertainment reports carried on through about Namatame's wife. But for now they were more invested in the food as Dojima just sat at the table and joined in.

No one talked, everyone invested in their own bowls and the TV. It was basic information, the most cut and dry of the news about the sudden death, but by tomorrow it would be fleshed out. By tomorrow if concrete information wasn't provided quickly enough the yellow journalism group would start with their stories. That was the sad part of the truth, so many ways to present the truth, slant the truth, distort it, reverse it, break it. Did anyone know the truth anymore?

But that wasn't Souji's duty to know, just the up to date gossip so that he would be able to understand what everyone would be talking about the next day. As the meal was finished he set about cleaning the plates off the table with Nanako washing them while standing upon a chair to better access the sink. Once he was done, he slipped away from them again to return to his solitary ways. But after he finished unloading several boxes he was tired enough to go to sleep, his dreams were peaceful and quiet so maybe his rough spot among the move was over?


	4. Chapter 4

Silent Inaba

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta: no one

A/N: Yeah, I'm working on this, fixing old chaps updating with this...

* * *

This town wasn't normal; something in the pit of his stomach told him that when he woke up that morning. Perhaps it had something to do with the crow that had been sitting at his window sill looking directly at him. Or at least it felt like that to him. Maybe it was how everyone at school was complaining about the rain. O Even more eerie, if that were even possible, was that no one was was talking about how there had been a murder. They were more interested in the fact that the victim had been found upside down from a television pole.

The very notion that people were more curious about how she got up there, than the fact she had been killed in this backwaters town... Well it gave Souji the mental shivers. This wasn't his first time around when murders or strange things happened. But everywhere else, people were afraid of the events because they were unknowns, not mildly curious. People simply did not fixate on how the crime happened rather then the crime itself. People feared for their safety, not wondering how a body found it's way where it did.

"Oh hey!" The loser from before had somehow managed to find him, fancy that. So he turned and gave the other guy a look asking what was wanted of him. "Yeah... Uh maybe we need to talk... You've uh... Look would you like to go to Junes today? Ummm..."

Souji really had no idea how to handle this invitation and apparently that was translated onto his face as the guy began to fumble around more. "Look, I know you're new, but I don't suppose anyone's told you why uh... well you've noticed how everyone's talking right?"

Souji found himself being towed off to the window of the classroom before class had started and this guy wasn't... wasn't what though?

"Look, you notice it don't you? No one even cares that a woman 'died' their more about how she was found. There's a reason for that... I just don't know if..."

"Hey! Yosuke-kun what are you talking about?" Chie bounded in on them at that moment, but Souji found the barely expressed comment rather odd. Both in that he agreed and that apparently this was a rather nervous thing to talk about.

"N-nothing! I just err... wanted to see if Seta wanted to hang out after school," Yosuke looked a bit panicked at the sight of Chie. Then again getting kicked in the balls yesterday probably had a great deal to do with that.

"Oooh that's a great idea, since we couldn't do that yesterday! Yeah," suddenly Chie turned to face Souji with a bright look on her face. "We can go and hang out! Ohh you won't believe what happened after we split up..." Chie began when the class bell rang.

Well, granted he wasn't used to being just up and had plans dumped on him, but then again he wasn't doing anything either. So he went back to his desk to endure another day of being with the jackass teacher.

Junes Food Court

Junes aspired to be the Japanese version of a Wal-Mart, up to and including springing up everywhere. Surprisingly the guy with the crappy bike was the son of the manager of the local Junes store. Hanamura, Yosuke was typical of guys, laid back, and seemed to be pretty irresponsible to a degree. But Souji wasn't placing hard bets after one meeting though, given apparently the teen worked in Junes, he probably just slacked off at school because it was the only place he could.

But there had been something that Hanamura clearly wanted to talk about, something that made him nervous to boot. It made Souji curious, curious enough to be dragged along with the pair to Junes.

"So yeah, this weird guy just showed up and asked Yukiko-chan out on a date, I mean... he doesn't even go to our school, and neither of us have ever seen him before. OH! And to top it off he called her 'Yuki-chan' right off the bat. Where do guys get the idea that they can do that?" Chie immediately turned her head to look at Yosuke, as though he had all the answers.

"Was he creepy cool or just creepy?" Yosuke asked, passing by a boarded up shop as they walked.

"What?" With that Chie turned to look at Souji, her eyes still demanding an explanation for that event.

"Well was he trying to be cool? Or just trying to scare the two of you?" Yosuke elaborated, as he moved along. Souji merely shrugged in agreement, it was plausible, though it didn't really answer what Chie was asking. Souji merely followed along, his input wasn't all that important, until they finally arrived at the Junes department store.

Junes was five stories tall, it was built as a mockery of the format that it's American counterpart had. He'd been in several, and after the second one he didn't care anymore the same setup meant nothing of interest. Even the entrance of the Junes was the same as all the others, right up to the elevators. But there were things that made this Junes stick out, the AC was cranked to eleven clearly, there was a touch of grim against the walls of the elevator like no one ever cleaned it. He said nothing though, as he realized that the two he walked here with had yet to stop talking. Conversation seemed to be the most used way to pass the time in this place.

It was loud, jarring, or low murmurs, but it was never 'normal' conversations. People laughed too loudly, and as the elevator opened for various floors it was too silent. "You have got to be kidding me, 'the Amagi challenge'? Tell me you're kidding Yosuke-kun, there's no way that Yukiko is 'that' hard to talk to."

"Dude, she is oblivious to the whole male student body," Yosuke pointed out, and Souji's mind boggled at how they could still be discussing some girl. He could understand if it was two guys talking about a girl, but... Maybe it was just him zoning out and he missed another conversation all together. It wouldn't have been the first time it happened. The doors to the third floor opened up, allowing a modest looking woman with a cart to come into the elevator. Natural nosiness made him look inside the cart from the corner of his eye.

Wow... large amounts of sleep aids.

Why didn't anyone here care that there had been a murder? Why were the two he was with right now, discussing some ditzy girl? Was this something his mother knew about? Was that why she warned him about the fog? But she warned about 'fog' not the insane levels of apathy these people had towards the life of another human being! Yet... what was it about the drugs? He didn't need to be a doctor to know that...

"Yo, you coming?" Yosuke was looking back at him as they stood on the food courts floor.

He shelved his thoughts, focusing more on leaving the elevator since, once Chie was gone, Yosuke suggested giving some idea of what was going on. So he joined the pair as they walked towards this round table with an umbrella, with a good spot to see the ground below.

"So anyways, have you guys heard of the 'Midnight Channel'?" Chie asked brightly as she sat down. A glance at the only other guy at the table showed that even if he was new, he wasn't the only clueless one.

"No, what's that?" Yosuke asked as he settled into his seat. Souji took another seat and both males gave Chie their full undivided attention.

"It's a show that comes on when the TV is off. Creepy sounding I know, but how it works is that if you look at a tv that's been turned off at midnight. You'll see your soul mate in the reflection of the tv," she sounded excited. Yet something about what she said made Yosuke blanch outright.

"Ah, hello Hana-chan, I see you made new friends..."

There was a new voice that interrupted the pair's conversation, bringing Souji's attention to a new girl. How could he not have noticed her? She wore the Junes work clothes and an apron, so she was an employee. Her name was on her tag pinned to her apron, and she had this quiet pallor to herself. Nothing glaring, just a slight tightness around the mouth, a fatigue in the eyes that told him that she was living through difficult times. Even as she kept her voice professionally polite and friendly, there was something that whispered in the back of his mind.

"Ah Saki-senpai! Are you on break?" Yosuke asked, his tone taking on the tone of a boy who was interested in a girl.

Souji stood up and pulled out a chair for her to sit down in. Whatever the situation, she carried herself like she had a burden that wasn't easing. She looked at him in surprise as he gestured towards the seat, her eyes reflecting gratitude, while her lips twisted into a self depreciating little smile.

'Do I really look that pitiful?' it seemed to say to him.

But she shook her head and pushed the chair back to where it was supposed to be. "My break is almost over actually, I need to get back to my area. I just came over because I wanted to say that I'm happy that Hana-chan has finally made some friends. He has his faults, but he's a nice kid and I'm glad that he's not alone here anymore."

"Awww, I'm not that bad am I?" Yosuke asked playfully, leaning back so he could see more of her, without it being obvious. But she gave a Mona Lisa smile and walked away, leaving the trio to themselves.

"Doesn't her parents run the liquor store? I've heard they haven't been doing so well... as of late," Chie asked in a soft voice.

Souji didn't need to ask, only an idiot didn't see the signs posted right there. Family run business driven out by a larger company. Limited funds meant limited resources, the smaller shops would fold, because larger places had the muscle to supply every need. Why go to five different stores with small selections when you can go to one place and get all your needs fulfilled? He had a teacher once who asked him what he thought of such large, American, chain stores.

"_They're just another sign on the road to hell. People spend all their time staring up at the signs telling them of all the luxury's, that they don't see the pit they're walking towards. Hell is a path paved with good intentions."_

Souji was a bit odd like that though, his teachers always said he had a knack for seeing the heart of a situation. It was just he had a darker way of seeing it. Souji didn't see it that way, in his view, sometimes saying the truth in an ugly way was the only way for it to be seen. Gloss it over, make the truth, too, soft and no one got the message.

Yosuke got the message, it was in the way his eyes slid away from Souji's to the ground away from the table. The uncomfortable shifting of posture and the attempt at looking at anything save the Junes buildings and the people shopping in it. City kid in a country town, son of the family that was going to drive the economy of the town into the dump. Perhaps that was why Konishi wanted him to make friends with someone else. These kinds of things were downers for people who cared, and though this was clearly a bumbling idiot. People didn't need to suffer for their parents choices. Sides, society was a 'eat or be eaten' one.

Chie's cellphone rang, bringing them out of their own mental worlds as she answered it. With a promise to see them at school the next day she got up heading for the grocery department for a quart of milk. Extracting a promise from the guys that they would try to see the Midnight Channel later that night.

They watched her walk away, when Yosuke took a deep breath. "So yeah, this is freakville Japan. Everyone here turns into monsters at midnight after the fog sets in."

That was also Yosuke who slapped him in the back of the head with a 2x4 as well. He didn't even answer, he just gave Yosuke a look, a long hard look.

"I didn't believe it either, at first, but then the first time it happened... They drug you, you've seen it, sleep aids are the biggest seller even here. I think they even put it in the water system when it's time to go to bed. When I avoided the drugs the second time it happened? It's not a pleasant sensation, by the time I came around again my room had been trashed. You'll see that a lot as well after these nights come. Various parts of town are trashed and there's no reason that I can figure for how or why it happens. The reason why no one cares about the fact that there's been a murder, only how it was committed? It's because people die here all the time. They just normally get ripped to pieces, and it always happens when there's heavy fog after midnight."

**Approaching midnight**

Souji sat on the couch in his room, the TV and lights both off as the rain slowed from earlier, but it would soon end. He wasn't sure if he should believe Yosuke's words, between this Midnight Channel business that Chie brought up and the monster thing? Body language said they were telling the truths on both counts. If it was real was another story, but for the moment he just sat there waiting. A part of him didn't know why he was even waiting, either option sounded incredibly insane to start with.

But it was something that would explain his mother's odd words and the odd dreams of Igor and that fog filled place. The minutes ticked by, when a stray thought caught his mind about Konishi, wondering if the girl was ok. Anyone who had met the girl was going to recognize her after her television debut, the screening used was terrible. Souji, personally, preferred the dark room style since the face was completely lost. Honestly did the show think that a small town like this would 'not' know the girl?

Did no one do research before they slapped things on the TV? It explained more of her exhaustion, as there were bound to be interviews regarding the murder, it would interrupt her school and home life, not to mention work. Souji was going to be amazed if she was able to keep it together until this blew over. Well if Yosuke was interested in her, then now would be the time to get up and stop being a dork for the sake of humor.

His TV flicked on while he was sitting there, something that shouldn't have happened since his remote was on the table. Static was all that he saw for a moment as he stood up from his couch and moved around the table. Rain continued to fall outside, giving him a drumming back beat to the static as he got closer. But once his shadow fell over the screen, an image did indeed appear. Along wavy hair, the backlight of a soda machine made deciding her hair color more difficult, but it had to be a lighter color. A school girl's uniform and a slender build, his mind made a connection assuming him to be looking at Konishi-san. But the static got in the way from a clear chance of identifying her, washing away the image before bringing it back. More then that, the girl was moving in a way that was not as though she was dancing, more like a ragdoll, flopping this way and that.

'I am thou...'

The words came from out of nowhere, old style and odd playing against the rain that fell outside.

'Thou art I..'

Strobe lights seemed to suddenly flash before his eyes, blue and white, red and black, his vision of the room around him suddenly disappeared as he tried to get his vision straight. Not that it would help as a sudden pounding headache suddenly took force, shutting down his sense of balance and teetering him to this side and that side.

'Thou art the one..'

He once got an electric shock once, a moment of carelessness was all it was. But in this moment he felt it all over again, only this time it was all consuming as a surge from his head down seemed to race along his nerves. He couldn't feel his body anymore, as he tumbled down to the ground unable to catch himself.

'Who opens the door.'


	5. Chapter 5

Silent Inaba

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta: By no one... but am trying to fix some stuff...

A/N: Uh... anyone want to beta this nightmare?

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

The world came into focus with a pounding beat behind his eyes. Once he opened them, all he saw was crystalline light dancing before his vision, like snow made of rainbows. Light reflected off of air particles as an ocean of water washed them away, drowning light into darkness. His eye lids closed over pained eyes as he sat slumped under the tv. He couldn't move his body, everything felt dead and drained. Like he had been crying the whole night, or destroyed emotionally to the depths where the aftereffects took hold of his body.

"Why... am I?"

More importantly, why did he ask that? He forced himself to move, to think beyond the pain that radiated through out his body. The memory of those odd words intoned into the back of his mind during the night. Yet it wasn't until he opened his eyes without the tears that he realized that the sun wasn't out. Rhythmic beats playing in his head through the headache he had slowly died, allowing the continued drumming of nature's tears be noticed. So where had the light come from when he first tried to open his eyes?

"_I am thou. Thou art I. Thou art the one who will open the door._"

He remembered those words being spoken in his head the previous night, as well as... Souji was finally able to drag himself to his feet so that he could look at his television. His shadow was cast over the screen, the light from the outside world framing his body against the wall and the dresser. But his shadow consumed the screen, while his fingers reached for it. Had he really seen it? Chie said that the 'show' would show you your soul mate. But that wasn't what he saw last night, rather the images of a girl in a agony. His mind said to expect the cool hard feel of whatever they used to make television screens. Reality said that he felt the cool feeling of water breaking from his touch and his hand slipping into water.

His eyes didn't help him either, as he watched the screen ripple as though he 'did' just stick his hand into a gray pool of water. Souji's mind struggled to wrap itself around the concept of what he was staring at, when suddenly he felt as though something grabbed his hand. Quite a many of something in fact, a strange sensation of slimy slickness meeting dry paste. Like someone spilled honey on fly paper he would have assumed. Yet 'it' was yanking on his arm, trying to pull him into the television and there was no way in hell he was going quietly! One hand braced against the edge of the screen he pulled until he yanked himself free, only to fall on his rear and slam the back of his head against the table.

This wasn't going to be his day, something just out right 'told' him it wasn't going to be it. Between the unexplained sensation of being drained when he just woke up, to the pounding headache from hitting the table with proper accompaniment of stars. With the crowning achievement of his hand going into the television like it was water, and pulling back covered in torn flesh and muscle. He actually had to sit there and stare, for a moment, at the ragged bits of flesh hanging off his arm and shirt. The wet sickly dripping of stagnated blood that pooled to the tip of said hanging flesh before landing on the ground with a 'plop'. Fingers looking just as bad as the rest of the arm, only it had a bit of jelly on the tips as though he plunged them into...

He was going to get ready for school now, come hell, high water, or both with a side order of Ragnarok. Granted first thing he was going to do was clean off his arm, because otherwise he was sure he was going to be sick. The air seemed almost rancid in that moment, and he could just imagine maggots crawling along his arm, seeking the decomposing flesh. The television alone would have been enough as his mind still couldn't wrap itself around that thought process.

But the blood and flesh was just enough to send him into the bathroom.

Even school itself failed to distract him from the sheer disturbing aspects of the previous night or the morning. Normally he didn't keep up with the morning snippets of conversation to school or through the hallways. Today was a day to be different in his opinion. No one had talked about the murder again, still curious about the 'how' it was done, rather then that it was done at all. But interestingly enough, everyone seemed a little sleepy and came with a shiny new topic.

They were whispering about Konishi. There were those who saw her on the television the night before and were now curious. Convinced that they were 'soul mates', and either annoyed, confused, or upset that it seemed that multiple people shared that connection. He didn't feel like he saw a soul mate though, he felt he saw someone crying out in pain. Didn't anyone see something like that?

He walked towards his homeroom class in the distance he saw Chie talking to a small group of various teens. Her posture was relaxed, yet excited as well it seemed, so he could only assume she was hanging out with her friends. Souji couldn't see Yosuke, but he could only assume the wary idiot would show up in time for class.

"Yeah, she had to go get her stomach pumped, she OD'd last night because of the 'show'."

Bizarre, strange, abnormal, it was everything to make your hair stand on end. The freshly pressed uniform scratched against his arms as the newly stiffened fibers caught on his skin. The ironed in folds of the uniform moved stiffly to accommodate his movements. If this was Nanako's idea of doing his laundry, he figured he better do it himself. All in all the whole experience was surreal enough to make him pause and wonder if he was in his own right body. Because from what he was hearing, and how his body was picking up his senses, he just felt like he had been dumped off in a parallel universe of pure weirdness.

Everything felt new, every breath felt like the first one, which ended up being why he stayed down wind of Hanamura, once he fished the idiot out of the trash can. But for now he listened to the gossip, while trying to form a way to explain what happened last night. He didn't know how Hanamura experienced it exactly so now they would have to compare notes. Hanamura didn't seem to be a well spring of information, so he could only hope that he could find whatever little river was feeding him.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

In the end he found himself back at the stagnated Junes, leading the other two into the electronics department. Since simply 'saying' what happened wasn't gong to work, even he knew that. Logic simply didn't work that way, then again, odds were running high that Chie might believe it. But given the sleeping pill he found dissolving in his drink the night everything went weird. Well he decided that Hanamura had the right idea, though how far did that go?

"Really Seta-san, I think you may have hit your head on something last night. Voices taking in your head? Your arm going into the television?" Chie voiced her concern with teasing false self confidence. While Yosuke followed up behind, a subdued look on his face, but he was listening to what Souji was saying all the same.

He could feel it, the thinnest of blades dancing along the edges of his skin, the eyes staring down at him from just out of his line of sight. Souji ignored the shadows that flitted on the edges of his sight, and instead answered Chie by raking his fingers along the screen of a large home theater television screen. Letting the pair watch as the screen rippled along, before he stopped where he was standing and shoved his whole hand up to the middle of his arm into it. "Well?"

A glance over his shoulder showed the pair were floored, Chie's eyes reflecting her amazement while Yosuke reflected his horror. But this time there was no sensation of being grabbed, so he pulled his hand back out easily. No blood, nor flesh was smeared on his limb which was comforting. Yosuke walked around him, between Yosuke and Chie he was bracketed against the TV. Chie placed her hand against the TV, but nothing happened making her cast her eyes back onto his face.

"Great... customers..." Yosuke had been staring at the floor before him, as he saw a few customers round the bend. Without thought he pressed himself and Chie against Souji, not realizing that Souji had pulled his hand out of the television.

Souji didn't feel the glass of the television against his back, rather he felt only open air as he went through the screen. For a moment all he saw was the dwindling light of the Junes store falling away like a shooting star. Before it was consumed by the writhing tentacles of darkness that began shooting down for him. Reaching, stretching out, grasping towards him only to snag onto something and rip it away, first from Chie, then Yosuke. Even as their screams filled the empty space they fell into.

The was a certain truth about the saying it 'not the fall one should worry about'. Souji couldn't see what was beneath them that they were heading for, so this endless fall didn't feel so bad. The longer the fall, the less was the chance that they would survive the landing after all. He pulled the pair closer to him, opting to hopefully break their fall with his own body. Staying limp would hopefully keep most of the impact from being fatal or crippling he hoped.

The impact he worried about came hard against his back, snapping his head against the ground and sparking dazzling stars to ignite in his vision. He laid there while the others slowly, nervously began to get up. "Are you both ok?"

"Yeah... is.. this the other side of the television?" Chie's voice came out weak, scared.

"What the hell happened?" Yosuke asked in amazement.

It was the nightmare all over again, the deep fog that obscured his vision. Below him was cracked and ruined stone, around him was deep fog and the pair he had traveled with. Shadows were lost in a fog so thick he couldn't even tell what the shadows were doing. A quick glance at his clothes showed that he was still dressed as he had been before.

"Hey, you took a nasty fall for us..." Chie reached up and gently began touching his shoulders as she spoke.

"I'll be fine," Souji replied, even as Yosuke began helping him to his feet. His winced when Chie found a particularly sore spot, but there was nothing to be done about it, the three of them were still trapped in... well where ever.

The first rule of thumb when lost: any direction you pick is a good direction.

So with no other idea, they opted to take start walking though they stayed close to each other. Feeling underfoot as the ground quickly began to elevate upwards until they were climbing up a very steep incline. Souji watched the ground in front of him, lost to both the fog and darkness of the place when he became aware of a faint light framing his form. Then an audible pop as light flashed throwing his shadow against the face of what they were climbing. Looking behind him and downward, he couldn't find a source, even when he cast his gaze above nothing was visible thanks to the fog.

"Any clue where that came from?" he asked, then mentally smacked himself in the head as he picked up from the poor view that Yosuke's headphones were on.

Really Hanamura?

Just... Really?

"Um, I think it came from below us, but I could be wrong?" Chie spoke up while she climbed, the girl was holding her own pretty well on the climb. But it wasn't so bad a climb, quickly the trio reached the top of wherever they were.

Souji felt numb from his shoulders down, an aftereffect of his fall more then likely, so he sat instead of stood. Around him, Chie knelt by his side, while Yosuke looked off into the distance.

"Seta-san?"

"I... I don't know for sure, but it looks like a crater?"

Nodding away Chie's concern he took in Yosuke's limited visual assessment as well. The fog rolled a bit more before stilling as Yosuke returned to his side.

"Hey? Think you're going to need help?"

"I'll be fine, don't worry about me," Souji waved that away as well, even as he felt the numbness in his fingers.

"Hmm, this seems to be stone..." Chie noted absently kneeling to the ground. As she touched the ground the guys followed suit, the numb feeling in Souji's fingers didn't help him, but Yosuke nodded.

"Yeah, old set stone, like at the abandoned shrine... maybe it's a path and we can follow it out of here?" Yosuke asked, as he stood there with his headphones off. Did he wear them when he had to do anything physical? This would be an interesting year he if he was going to be stuck dealing with the guy.

Yosuke helped him to his feet, before they slowly began making their way through this strange landscape. There was a strange feeling about the place, as though they were in a room full of people, just people that ignored them totally. Or perhaps, they just couldn't be seen through the fog. Sound came muffled through the fog, even if they were wearing sneakers. There was this strange sense of everyone listening and ignoring them all at once.

"_... so plain looking..." _

He could faintly pick out the sound of Yosuke's headphones, so the idiot put them back on when they should have been keeping their senses peeled just in case?

"_Who would want..."_

Normally fog trapped the smells of the earth within the water that helped form it. Just as water could have smells, fog could carry smells in its own moisture. When he was in the city, fogs were both rare and thin, burned out easily by the rising sun. The wind would carry away the remnants of the fog while bringing in fresh air. But here, the air smelled stagnant, as though the smells that the fog had collected never were released. Turning poisonous, rancid in fact like newly turned Earth had turned stale and rotting bodies of dead animals.

"_Indeed nothing like 'her'..."_

Occasionally a flare of light and an explosion of electricity would go off behind them. Flashing their shadows against the wall of the fog that ensnared each of them. Randomly appearing, just the sudden flash of light that both confused them and yet gave them sight. Even if it was only momentary, it was still light.

"_Boring really, I would have thought he should have just..."_

"Shut up!"

Before Souji could turn around, Chie was dashing into the fog, her voice tight with anger. Souji ran after her, with Yosuke taking up the rear easily.

"Chie-chan!" Yosuke hissed the name out, unwilling to alert what may have been around them. But for good or for ill, he did view Chie as a friend and didn't want to see her hurt.

Taller then the girl, both boys caught up with her easy once they got their pace going. Which wasn't easy considering there was virtually no light and only muffled sounds to go by.

"Satonaka-san, just ignore them," Souji ordered as he gripped one of her forearms, Yosuke holding the other in his hand.

"They have no right to talk about me like that!" Chie demanded, her eyes filling with tears that were hidden in the fog.

"And you're going to take them seriously in a situation like this because?" He countered, while Yosuke looked between the pair.

"Woah, are you saying you hear people talking around here?" he asked, looking around as though he could see beyond the fog.

"Hello? News flash, there have been voices this whole time!" She snapped back, as Souji placed his hand over her mouth to keep her voice down.

Another flash of that odd light allowed him to see the panic and anguish in her eyes. Turning her bubbly, helpful personality into a mask she wore. Unable to see clearly, and unwilling to put their lives further in danger, Souji pressed her against his chest, holding her close. "Ignore them, they're not important, right now what's important is getting out of here. Just ignore the old hags."

Yosuke joined him, bracketing the girl between them as he rested his hands on her shoulders. Really he had no idea what was going on, but this was unlike Chie. Souji was warm, a solid frame to rest against, thus a comfort to Chie as she tried to get over what she experienced.

There was no moon nor stars for them to go by in their effort to see. No artificial light or natural fires only the unnatural light that exploded from behind them.

"You know... it feels a little different here..." Yosuke noted aloud, looking about himself patient and curious about the area for once. "Like standing next to buildings... the air feels a little more contained here."

Souji looked about, surprised by the observation, thus applying more thought on how he physically felt at the moment. Before he had merely tried to see through the fog, but now he tried to feel the wind, the presence of something around him. The recoil came in violent black lightning, arcs that poured out of the fog into him. Yet even as the black lightning hit, he wasn't being 'struck' so much as being drained of something.

He couldn't hear, or see, the world of fog became a world of black as he lost all feeling in his body. In the distance he could hear Satonaka crying out in disbelief and Hanamura's choked sounds of shock. His knees hit the ground, his eyes frozen in a single look of disbelief and pain, yet despite that he could hear them...

"We need to go."

"We can't leave him like this! It's our fault that he's here, that any of us are here really!"

"'Our Fault'? You're the one who told us about that stupid thing!"

"Ok, 'my' fault! I can't just leave him!"

"... Fine, but no more freaking out... You get his other shoulder, and I'll get this one... I think we're near a building. So we can hide out here until whenever."


	6. Chapter 6

Silent Inaba

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Warning: It's getting Graphic...

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

When Souji could see the world again clearly, he was being dragged along between Yosuke and Chie. They were silent though, he only knew it was them because he could hear the faint sound of Yosuke's headphones playing by his ear. His head was killing him, but the vision began to clear before his eyes. Though all that really meant was that he wasn't seeing stars burst in front of him anymore, though the rest of the intense darkness of this place remained.

"Can... can we stop for a moment?" The pair froze when he began speaking, his body barely working to get his legs under him properly.

"Can we?" Chie's voice was tinted with an edge of panic. "Seta-san we tried to stop once..."

"But when we reached for you, we could feel something trying to pull you away from us. Into the ground!" Yosuke finished the statement, a violent shudder working through him.

"We don't even know where we are, the bursts of light stopped when you fell," Chie added, her voice beginning to shake more.

A sudden snap could be heard behind them as light bust in a state of static charge. The pair suddenly dropped him, falling back away from him with looks of horror on their faces.

"Dude... Dude..." The idiot looked ready to wet his pants, Chie looked just as bad though...

In the next burst of light, he brought his sight down towards his hands, where blood had been smeared along it. In fact he looked a mess, far more then when they started this 'adventure', though didn't they say that he had been 'pulled away'? Beyond them, in the light of the next spark of light, he could see a building reaching towards the sky over them. Well it was a place to go...

"Guys... can we stop fixating on my state of being and get back to trying to leave?" he asked as he stood up on his own power.

Chie was the first to turn around, to face the way he was, so it was logical that she was the first to recognize where they were.

"I know this place..." Her tone sounded confused and doubtful, but it quickly took on a tone of decisiveness. "I'm sure I know it, this is one of the apartment complexes in Inaba, I saw it on TV the other night. This is where that Yamano-san lives... but why is it here?"

"Maybe we'll find something to use here? We can't keep going blindly around, it's a building so maybe there's some light here?" Yosuke suggested.

They were grabbing at straws, but they made their way into the building, the sound of electrically run doors pulling open. Another spark illuminated the foyer, that outside of the pitch black darkness, looked what could be considered normal. But how could a person figure out the presentation of a room in a display of light no slower then a camera flash?

It took several flashes of those lights, before they could see the light switch, resting against the wall behind the front counter. The room felt safe amid the flashes of light, it looked so normal and typical that it could have been any room. Save that they had fallen through a television and landed into someplace else. If not for the realization that something was trying to pull Souji away from them, which couldn't have been good.

Well reality speaking, it might have been easier to just abandon Souji and make a run for it, but they couldn't bring themselves to it. For whatever reason, holding on to him inspired a sense of comfort that they couldn't explain.

"Oh! I found it!" Chie announced into the vast darkness.

The soft sound of a switch being flipped gave the room a glow from the neon lights above, even then the fog itself had invaded the insides of the building as well, but it wasn't so bad now with the light from above helping out. The room looked as Chie had said it would, an apartment front office, building.

Yosuke went looking for a phone to try and use, Chie stood there looking Souji over with a concerned eye. "I don't know what happened Seta-san, but something tried to pull you away from us."

They had tried to lay him down on the ground, give him time to rest and recover from whatever had happened to him. But as they settled down, Chie had felt Souji's hand had moved away, not to the side like he had moved, but away like he was pulled back from her. There was no way to see at that time and in alarm they reached for him, feeling the ground moving over Souji like the earth below was trying to bury him. But under the scrutiny of the of the harsh light above, despite the fog's softening of the sight, it was clear that it wasn't dirt on Souji. There were smears along his face, vivid marks trailing on his body, it was impossible to understand how he woke up not realizing it. He looked like he should have been soaked, yet...

But he wasn't wet, given the story Chie had told them, Souji should still have been wet from the experience. There wasn't a great deal of length between where they attempted to rest and the lobby. He pulled off his school jacket and found that the majority of the shirt was white, save what probably would have been exposed to the ground before.

They stayed with him at least, they didn't run away like they would have fully been entitled to do. The situation was beyond the realm of the sane or the normal. They had fallen into a television, forced to travel in complete darkness save the occasional light that sparked out from behind them. Really there was nothing about the situation that they found themselves where he felt they 'should' be obligated to look after someone who had been knocked out.

It said something that they were able to keep their heads enough to keep him with them, despite their clear fear.

"Hey! I found something, Yamano-san's name is listed as a resident!" Yosuke called out. They watched as he pulled open a small locker placed against the wall, they could see his momentary confusion before pulling out a set of keys. Then he walked back towards them, keys in hand a confused but thoughtful expression on his face. "The book lists all sorts of names, but Yamano-san's name lists her as checking out tomorrow."

"Well, she was trying to hide from the reporters, maybe she opted to move?" Chie suggested, her expression thoughtful. Only she got killed before she could move out of apartment, but how would this place know?

"Maybe there's something in her apartment? After all, her appearance in the real world was without injury..." Souji suggested, the pair looking at him with a blend of curiosity and surprise. "She made it back to our world after all. Maybe there's a clue in her room to explain how she got back."

The pair with him nodded, it did make some sense, and it was a direction they could take. They couldn't stay in this place forever, there had to be a way out. Under the fog muted lights, they traveled through the building corridors until they reached the outside walkways. Doors lined the wall to their right as they moved along, at intervals a wall lamp would provide them with a bit of light.

"Wait, this is it!" Yosuke stopped before a door and was already sliding in the key into the lock. The odds were high that any of the doors they opened from the row of doors would open without a key. But Yamano had been bothered by reporters no doubt, so her apartment 'had' to be locked, if for no greater purpose then for her privacy. Then again she did opt to go into hiding, perhaps the key and lock weren't enough?

But he was assuming she even 'came' to this world, thus the realization that this was stupid crossed his mind. What were the chances that a woman newly murdered would have just fallen into such a strange world and find her way out? What were the odds of two people randomly having the ability to pass through into a television, in the same small town?

Only...

This town had an affliction of monsters... If what Yosuke said was true, then there was far more to this town. Did Yamano even 'know' about it herself before she died? In that moment, he was finally able to think on the situation well enough that he could realize a small, but vital, fact.

He needed more information.

But not now, not here, if this place was trying to pull them apart, he needed to get them home first.

The room was laid out neatly, a bed to the upper left part of the room, the typical trappings of a Japanese apartment. From the first visual sweep there was no sign that anyone had even been there to start with. But they had nothing else to go on, Chie jogging up behind Yosuke before turning to face him as he entered. But her eyes caught sight of something that bothered her into a choked gasp, making both Yosuke and himself turn to face back towards the doors.

All along the walls there were posters of a woman in a kimono, dozens of them nearly wallpapering the walls. They were pasted on the wall like someone had done a hurried job of it, neatness didn't exist, with corners overlapping on many of them. It was hard to miss the impression that this was a single person in each poster. Even though the face of the woman was ripped off in each photo, if not her whole face then clearly her eyes. Darkening splatters of red marred the walls, a couple of sad attempts at throwing water balloons filled with paint, dripped their liquid down the walls. Like over mocking attempts at emulating blood splattered markings.

The fog obscured the kimono, but while Souji wasn't a betting man, he would have laid odds that the woman was that Enka singer. A love triangle made a heart such an ugly thing as he tried to fathom the reason for the room to be done up like this. If Yamano 'had' arrived in this place, to this location, why would she dress up the room with such images? Was this place a total recreation of her living space back in the real world? Or did she do this herself when she arrived in a fit of anger that Hiiragi had ruined her life.

If that were the case, wouldn't it have meant that have meant that she knew how to go between this world and the next? Otherwise, why redecorate a copy living space in such negative images, unless you believed no one would ever see it. But it wasn't as though Souji had access to the real living room, to put some of his questions to rest. The three broke off into studying the walls around them, drawn like passer bys of a car wreak. Souji found himself recalling a bit of the kimono upon closer inspection, but even then he couldn't quite place where he had seen it.

It was Yosuke's own stunned voice that answered that question, off to the side and looking at one poster with his head tilted a bit. "I know this poster! It's in the music section of Junes! This is the latest picture of the Enka singer, Hiiragi Misuzu! I know it is!"

"Really?" Chie squinted harder at the posters, as though she believed they would provide her with more insight as to the identity of the person.

"Makes sense if it's her," Souji noted, returning to the center of the room. He felt safer then standing next to a poster that had the upper face ripped off of, before correcting himself, "well it does and it doesn't."

"I guess, but this is a little... Oh guys..." Chie's voice cut off, what had gone from an idle gesture of looking up caused her to discover something else.

Hanging just off from Souji, but high enough not to be visible on the initial study of the room was what looked to be a noose, a shade of red from what he could see, some frills dangled from it... A woman's scarf? Wait... did she come here to commit...

"I need to pee really bad."

Souji's mental train of thought, hit a brick wall at that moment. Brick wall, two titanium walls, a couple of barns and came to a smoldering stop... Did Yosuke just say what he thought he just said?

But Chie was already going off about that particular issue as Souji stood there. So he felt safe in just standing there and watching as the topic ended with Chie giving a look of disgust and turning her back to Yosuke. He covered his face with his hand, wondering at the type of people he was stuck with, while trying to remind himself that this type of situation wasn't one that was planned. Trying to ignore the sound of a zipper, ignore 'everything' about Hanamura until the idiot was done.

In doing so, without something to mentally latch on to, he found himself tired. A sensation that he didn't know if it was from the stress of the situation or if it was from those moments earlier. Because he wasn't sure if he should call them 'attacks' or if that was a natural standard of this place.

"He's... I can't believe we're here and he's... got the bladder the size of a nut," Chie grumbled, though her wording cracked Souji up.

She looked up at him in amazement and that only amused him more. But he stifled his amusement for the sake of their nerves. But Chie's expression grew thoughtful after a bit before she settled into a slight smile. "This place doesn't bother you does it?"

"It bothers me, but I'm not going to let it get to me. When you travel as much as I have, you learn to take the changes in stride. Even the reality breaking places like this if you treat it like any other place," he explained.

Chie looked up at him with growing admiration through the fog, a sight that warmed his heart. She nodded at his words and seemed to try to bolster her own courage in the face of this situation. The sound of Yosuke's shoes as he walked over broke the moment, but it was fine. They still had to figure out how to get out of this place. But at that thought, Souji found his eyes going up towards the noose hanging ominously over their heads. There was no chair out for such an attempt, only Yamano had been missing, and now was found dead 'hanging' from a strange location.

What if she didn't find her way out? What if she hung herself, and then have someone take down her body and deposit it back in the real world?

"We need to leave this place... If she killed herself, or was killed here then someone may know how to get out of this world. But I'd prefer not to be in an enclosed location if they turn out not to be the friendly of types..." Souji spoke as he began to usher the other two out of the room.

Pages turning could be heard behind him, the others apparently able to hear it or maybe they were motivated by his orders. They left the room quickly, while he followed behind, a glance over his shoulder turned his blood to ice.

The paint was peeling off the wall like the pages of a book, one page then the second more and more. Beneath the paint and wallpaper of ruined posters was that fog, while the room seemed to fold out from itself, turning the pages into a dervish of papers growing ever larger. Souji backed up more quickly to door as the whirl wind of papers danced maddeningly towards him.

But it wasn't the sound of the mayhem, or even the sight of the walls disappearing that bothered him.

Nor was it the sight of that strange white fog he had seen in his dreams.

He could honestly say it wasn't the sight of something dripping from roughly where the noose hung.

No, the one thing that got him backing out of that door in horror was what was on the remains of the bed.

Bed now alter, with Yamano strapped upon it. Not just strapped, but black serpentine bodies with long clumped black hair women sat around her. Like children left to go wild on a birthday cake, they were ripping piece after piece out of Yamano. Seemingly for hours given that her body was missing from the breast down. Devouring her as she looked at Souji, screaming for help as another one of those 'women' ripped a piece off her remaining breast.


	7. Chapter 7

Silent Inaba

Written By Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta: No one

A/N: I move out and just got the net hooked up. Updates will be resuming!

From what had once been an ordinary door, became plastered with dozen posters of a woman in a kimono. Her face ripped out in rage in many cases turning a single piece of poster sheet into two, with pieces of yet more poster sheets taking up the space. There was a sickening wet sound as the sheets slapped themselves against the open doorway, blocking the view of what went on inside. For which Souji was grateful, he didn't want to see Yamano like 'that' again.

"So I guess we can't go back in there," Chie noted, hugging herself as she crept closer to Souji.

"No, seems not, man how do we get out of here? And 'not' in the state that she was when she left," Yosuke answered, his voice just as uncertain as Chies'. No point in mentioning 'who', after all reappearing in the real world strung up and dead was quite frightening and memorable. Instead he reached out to Souji, giving the newcomer a light shake on the shoulder. Even in the limited light, he could see that Souji was stunned by something he saw.

"What 'is' this place?" Souji demanded, when he finally got enough of his wits together to turn and look at the pair.

"I don't know! I swear, this isn't normal!" Chie defended herself, looking between Souji and Yosuke, but Yosuke wasn't buying that a bit.

"Yeah right! What about the fog times?"

"Look, that is something completely different! It's just part of the town's history..." Chie began only to be cut off by Yosuke.

"A town's history is nothing more then buildings or a statue. Not people going nuts and killing each other!"

"That's only when people don't follow the rules, and they don't kill each other! We just... I don't know..." Chie sighed, her gaze switching from Yosuke to Souji, and she seemed to collect herself a bit. "Look, there's a tradition in Inaba. Everyone 'must' be asleep before the fog rolls in if it rolls in at midnight after their coming of age ceremony. No one knows 'why' anymore, just that it happens. 'This'," she gestured with a flung out arm to emphasizes the whole area, "is 'not' part of it."

"You mean the voice," Souji replied, causing the growing argument, because clearly Yosuke had never been able to get this fact off his chest in any form of public before, to stop on a dime. "I doubt Satonaka-san has ever heard it, she's ingrained not to 'want' to experience this... So that leaves you, Hanamura-san... The first time it happened, what did you experience?"

Yosuke looked a little embarrassed, but that was mostly lost with the mix of light and shadow the place had. But at least the guy looked to be 'trying' to remember.

_It had been about a month since the family had moved to Inaba, and while Yosuke was slowly getting accepted by the local teens, he was still lonely. It would be a little while further before the other kids blamed him for the decline of the neighborhoods due to Junes taking all the business away. They had heard about the fog, about needing to be asleep before it rolled in, but seriously Yosuke had forgotten all about it. Instead he had found himself struck with a strange sense of insomnia and had taken out his guitar and began strumming a few cords. Generally if he played a low key tune, no one bothered him when he played, he was no rock star but at least he knew how to carry a tune. _

_He was lost in the music playing in his headphones when he heard something softly spoken. All but drowned out by the music, it had been enough to make him take off the headphones. _

"When I came to I was in the living room, but it looked thrashed, like someone had gone through all my stuff and just left it on the floor," Yosuke confessed, but even though it wasn't much, it was enough for Souji. For now.

"Well, let's keep trying to find a way out of here," Souji finally said, pushing himself away from the rail he had been leaning against.

"Maybe we should try where we started from?" Yosuke suggested, before rubbing his eyes. "Man it's such an eyestrain to keep looking around."

"Agreed," Souji nodded, feeling that strain behind his eyes as he kept trying to see through the fog. "Do you think there's anything here we can use though? Flashlights or candles?"

"Maybe," Chie looked down for a moment, "I don't recall seeing any when we went through the front though. But I wasn't exactly hunting for that either."

"Will it be safe to use? I mean, you had that weird reaction near a building after all," Yosuke asked, tilting his head in reference towards Souji. Which was something that Souji had not thought about since his arrival to this world. He mentally retraced what he was doing, as Yosuke had mentioned the wind feeling different when they stood next to a building. But when he tried to pick up on that, the recoil had hit. When he tried to focus on the wind he had felt pain, but without air he wouldn't be able to breath, so what was the connection?

"Hanamura-san? How has the air felt to you since we arrived?" Souji asked, giving his focus to the other teenage guy in the group.

Yosuke blinked in confusion for a moment, then he looked down, trying to remember. Anyone else might have felt that the question was stupid. But he had just fallen into a television, had someone nearly pulled into the dirt, then there was Yamano's room. Despite his need for 'some' form of normality, he wanted out of this strange place more.

"You know how fresh baked bread, or food just heated smells?" he asked, clumsily trying to find the right set of words. "It's not the air 'itself', more like... I guess you could say it's like being in a pool verses a river. It's not moving much, like right now it's not moving at all, like I'm in stagnated water, but when something has created a breeze... It just feels right to me, refreshing, and whatever is in the way... just is?" he tried to remember how he could tell there was a wall, the feeling of something obstructing his path. "I guess the only way I can explain it is to think of winding a string on a guitar loosely. You feel it sliding along your fingers coiling around something that won't move, but it's just there, not a problem or anything..."

Yosuke stood there with a weak smile on his face, the kind that the class clown would wear when a joke went flat. The 'hey I gave it my best right', look with the uneasy lack of confidence when what boosted that confidence normally, failed to perform. But he made an effort and Souji couldn't fault him for that.

Yosuke had said that he had felt the wind quite naturally, to the degree that apparently he never thought that what he was doing was considered odd. Then again Souji had an constant orb of electricity lifting off behind him every time they traveled in darkness. With no explanation as to what was causing that.

"Let's just go guys," Chie stated as she rubbed her arms one more time and turned towards the way they had come.

"Yeah, let's go," Souji agreed as he turned his steps in the same direction.

"What? We're not going to search this whole building like some type of survival horror game?" Yosuke asked, his tone playfully mocking. He didn't want to be there any more or any longer then anyone else in their group. But ask any shrink and they would tell you that levity was sometimes the only thing that a mind could handle to keep from breaking. Push back the fear with a laugh or break into tears and in this type of situation? Anything for a laugh and the chance of making it out alive was Yosuke's plan.

Souji turned to look at Yosuke before giving a smirk and a small flippant salute, "it's all yours Heather."

"Phft yeah right. Rather it be a Bio Hazard event myself," Yosuke retorted, though it got a raised eyebrow look from Souji. "Hey man, Zombies via a virus is a lot better then 'this'. At least with a virus you have an explanation, this is about as clear as what happened in that room back there." Yosuke pointed out, and he had a valid point.

"But they didn't know it was a virus in the beginning," Souji pointed out calmly, which Yosuke nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, maybe this 'is' the same thing, I wish I could just hit the power switch and get out of this 'game'."

"I can't believe we're going through this and the two of you are talking about video games," Chie huffed in mild annoyance and milder relief.

"Its for the best, being distracted by little things has their good and bad points," Souji pointed out.

"Name one," Chie retorted, as they took the steps down to the ground floor of the complex.

"Well, doesn't it feel like it's more like we're just walking along Inaba in the middle of the night during an outage?" Yosuke suggested, and between them Chie lowered her head in thought.

"So do you guys have hobbies?"

"My music," Yosuke automatically replied, "I have a guitar back at my place and I like to play when I get some free time."

"Really? I never knew," Chie remarked surprised by this discovery.

"Yeah, well I'm not really any good, but it's a good stress reliever, you can't take your anger out on an acoustic and make it sound good." Yosuke confessed, rubbing the back of his head.

"When did you pick it up?" Souji asked, curious about it, he never had a hobby before. His parents moved around so much that collecting anything seemed to be a waste of time. In the end it would become just another thing to pack, another reminder of his drifting through life.

"Aw it was something stupid," Yosuke protested, shaking his head but Chie was curious.

"Hey, don't say that, what's one person's stupid is another person's interest!" She countered looking up at Yosuke as they passed rows of houses, heading back towards 'Junes'.

And she had a point, girls generally weren't expected to take up the martial arts, not with the gusto that Chie clearly had. But her insistence had won Yosuke caving in and giving the details.

"A few years back, I saw a music video with an opening of a guy playing an acoustic guitar on a street corner. Something about it just made me see myself in him, though I don't know what it was, it just resonated," he looked embarrassed to say that.

They didn't honestly know what to expect when they returned to where they had fallen. Perhaps some random Junes employee who had tried to touch the screen in an effort to sell the tv to a potential buyer. Maybe the employee AND the customer, maybe some huge monster hell bent on killing the three stupid kids who had found their way into its lair.

What they did 'not' expect was the oddly shaped being.

Oddly shaped in that it 'looked' like it was supposed to be a bear of some sort. Of the knock'em sock'em variety that you punched over and it righted itself. Perhaps it looked harmless enough, or perhaps Chie had reached her quote in things that scared her, because before Souji could say anything... Chie pulled off a rather masterful flying kick, for someone who never took a serious class and got all her training from movies. Who needed training when they could just watch tv or look it up on the internet?

But somewhere deep inside Souji's head, he felt as though an innocent had been attacked. Not that it wasn't justified in action, but all that aside, "Satonaka-san, I think you crossed a line with that one..."

She was panting, but he doubted that it was from the running kick, and more the pent up fear being given such an outlet. The bear like being was left floundering on the ground, rocking itself side to side in an effort to right itself.

So apparently this was a defective Rock'em Sock'em.

"Hey! I knew it! You're the guys dumping people here!" said bear declared as he continued rocking back and forth. But at least it, he, spoke and sounded relatively normal. Which was reassuring, apparently to the others as well as they began arguing with the stranger. For which Souji couldn't fathom that logic.

"What do you mean by that? We haven't dumped anyone anywhere!" Yosuke protested at the accusation. With Chie nodding resolutely along side him.

"Oh yeah? Well if you're innocent why did you attack me?" the stranger countered as he finally got himself up. He had a blue head with a white/tan face with large expressive eyes, highly annoyed eyes at the moment. He looked more like he was wearing a child's bed clothes with a white stripe that ran down mid stomach, and a large zipper around the neck.

"You should know!" Chie countered back with her hands on her hips. "The ground tried to suck Senpai into it, theres' a room that is lined with slashed posters of a woman..." She probably would have carried on given the opportunity.

But Souji laid his hand on her shoulder and gave a light tug, pulling her back so he could get the stranger's attention. Having caught through the fog, the look of distress on the bear beings' overly expressive face. "Look, it's my fault, I was trying to show something that happened when the fog was about last night. We got knocked into the TV, it was never our intention to come here."

The stranger reached out towards him with a mitten shaped bear paw, a thoughtful look crossing his face. "'They' were after you? Then I guess you're telling the truth. I'm Teddie by the way, and I'll get you out of here, but it's a one passage only deal. I'm not helping anymore then this!" Teddie turned towards the center of the crater they stood in, before waving his hand out into empty air. Amid the flashes of light behind Souji they could see a series of old style televisions suddenly leap out of the ground, stacked one on top of the other in a series of three TVs.

"What do you mean by 'they'?" Souji asked as he turned to look down at the bear.

"This place is pretty ok normally, there are all sorts of beings here, but when the fog leaves they all go crazy. It's beary scary and I hide until it's over." Teddie began explaining, his tone was unique in a nervous sort of way.

"'Beings'?" Yosuke spoke up, but Teddie carried on as though the teenager didn't speak.

"But there's been an influx of new beings that aren't local, they scare the fur off of me." Teddie never took his eyes off of Souji, as though Souji was the soul audience for this explanation.

"What type of beings?" Souji asked, as Teddie lifted up his arms like he was going to give a group hug.

"I forgot, it's been a beary long time since anyone here was called anything. I don't even remember who I am."

He began herding them towards the sets, there 'was' a faint logic to the televisions' appearance, since they arrived via such devices. But they had been stories above ground when they entered, and now they were clearly below ground level even if it was not by much. Would they arrive in solid stone? The basement of Junes? But Teddie was right behind them, shoving them towards the three TV's. Ignoring their complaints he pushed them until they were forced to crawl into the televisions with no other way open to them.


	8. Chapter 8

Silent Inaba:

Written by: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta:

A/N: This is the reason why all my chapters are late... It seems like forever before I finally got somewhere with this fic that I liked.

For a moment the trio were blinded by light, though hopefully, not 'that' light. For a startling moment, the world was a jumble of light and myriad of sounds. Unless you were Yosuke, then it was just sight because those damn headphones were back on his head. It was a loud, jarring sound that after a few moments cleared up into the sounds of the Junes loudspeakers and televisions working all around them. The sights of locals spilled over their vision, mingling with the neutral lighting of the electronics department.

Amid the seas of color was a group of people, a sales associate along with a pair of potential customers. They had gone from seeing the far corner of the room and let their eyes go across the room in a sweep only to take in this sight. The manager's son had a deer caught in headlights look as he quickly tugged the two teenagers with him up to their feet. The pair looked dazed and the man had to wonder if Hanamura had managed to lose his ability to walk, as he had lost his ability to ride a bicycle, without causing an accident.

But for the pair with Yosuke, all they knew was that he was suddenly dragging them to their feet and moving them further from the tv. He had Souji leaning against his shoulder and was arm in arm with Chie as he moved. He needed to get the pair to the restrooms, for Souji's sake, as he now had a great idea of the state Souji was in. Yosuke shrugged off his headphones as he moved along, seeing the hanging sign pointing towards the restrooms above him in the distance.

"I'm ok," Souji murmured as he struggled along, his eyes finally focusing on the space ahead of them.

"No, I don't think you are," Yosuke corrected as he caught sight of concerned looks from strangers. All around them was the normality of a store that he normally hated with a passion for what it cost him in a regular life. But considering the wild ride the town and now that trip through where-ever-the-hell-but-not-Inaba was, he couldn't be happier then to see the same displays on either side of him. For once in his life he was grateful for the Junes jingle playing over his head and cookie cut out building design.

Chie was exhausted, but between the two of them, exhaustion was a lot better then the other option so he let her sit on one of the benches outside the rest rooms. Meanwhile Yosuke towed Souji into the men's, since there would have to be more done for the teen.

The men's restroom was pretty generic, so Yosuke didn't have to really look before dumping Souji beside the sink. "I need to go find the janitors cart for some paper towels, so try to get washed up and I'll be right back."

Souji, by now, could follow what was being said and found himself looking at the restroom at large as he was left. But after a few moments he lifted up a hand to see if maybe it held a clue to his condition that got Yosuke so riled up. The deep dark gray of his uniform was streaked and caked in dirt, the white cuffs were smeared with an eerie shade of red and black.

He pushed himself from the wall and braced himself against the sink to his side to take a look in the mirror. He was pale, his face thin with exhaustion, but nothing that would justify Yosuke acting like this. Then again he had some idea of what else went on in this town, perhaps he knew or thought he knew that this was serious. There was a sensation of slickness about him, a thick visceral feel on his skin as though he had been dropped in some crudely made oil. It coated his skin and now that he could actually focus on himself outside that world, it was even in his mouth.

It tasted as though someone had cooked some meat at such a high heat, that it burned the outer part and left the internal part still raw. It was a slimy wet texture yet he was unable to politely remove the sticky coating of ash in his mouth. It was choked down his throat every time he swallowed and he seriously didn't want to swallow anymore. He didn't really look at his hand when he ran his hand across his nose. But the bloody trail left behind, though initially alarming, was ignored as Souji began to cough up that wet gagging feeling. His body apparently unwilling to deal with swallowing it too many times.

There was an absolutely hellish roll of his stomach that clenched into a freeze nearly sending him to his knees. Grabbing at the restroom sink, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and froze in shock and disbelief. A distracted glance at the mirror and all he saw was blood. All over his face, from his tear ducts, down his face to join and split at his nose where more blood was dripping. Even his ears had blood leaking out, which made no sense as it hadn't been happening when he first stepped into the restroom.

"The substance in thine mouth is blood. Of what origin I know of not."

It was a logical statement, as his mouth had clear signs of blood coming from inside. Which would mean that the taste in his mouth was, in fact, his own blood. But while Souji wasn't a guy who looked for fights, he 'had' tasted his own blood before. What was in his mouth at that moment?

Wasn't his blood.

It couldn't have been, even as he pushed himself away from the sinks and towards the toilets. His mind sluggishly tried to deny what was in his mouth and spilling down his face. He felt so tired, as though he had spent all night and day doing some form of insanely intense physical labor. Even as he tried to reach the stall door it felt like it was running away from him. Souji's vision began to tunnel out until he couldn't see the passive beige colored door.

His hand struck it in a clumsy parody of a push, while in the back of his mind he could register a strange sensation. Some distant part of himself thought it was what kittens and puppies went through when they were grabbed by the scuff of their necks. His skin felt like it was being pulled back from having him faceplant himself down into either the toilet, or onto the floor at the foot of it. His legs gave out and he sank down while that same tugging sensation lifted him up enough to dangle him over the toilet.

Which was just as well, because what came up his throat was far and away not a little bit of blood. It swelled up and pushed through his throat, sliding down his tongue and out past his teeth and lips like an inflated raft down a rapid. The mental image wasn't lost on him either as more came up and out of his stomach. Where did this pollution come from was a question he would think on further later, but at that moment the only thing that concerned him was the choking spewing taste in his mouth.

At some point, and he couldn't quite pinpoint when, he became aware of another presence. Hanamura was behind him, patting him firmly on the back, and his words were a jumble of comforting and disgusted sentences. Not that Souji was going to blame the guy, if he could even 'see' what was going on he was pretty sure that the graphic nature was note worthy. It even seemed therapeutic to have Hanamura beating on his back. It created a strange sense that the force getting this vile stuff out of him was intensified. For that? He was grateful.

His vision finally cleared enough that he could actually look down and 'see' what he had been doing, and nothing was pretty. The toilet was filled with large floating chunks of blood and matter, as though he had vomited up liver sized blood clots. The fact that it was 'that' big and got through his throat without choking him was impressive enough. It wasn't even really floating, rather it sank to the bottom of the bowl and piled up until it broke the surface water. The seat was coated in bloody hand prints, and Hanamura was shoving bunched up toilet tissue against Souji's face as though he wanted to get the blood off 'fast'.

Then again, it made sense, no one would want a bloody teenager walking through a store. It was what caused people to call the ambulance to start with, and that was bad press for a store. He sank back against the stall wall and looked up at the blond to the right of him, casting a glance at the bowl to the left of him and gave a acidic flavored sigh.

"I have a new respect for women and their cycles."

"You dumb ass! Where the hell did that come from!" Yosuke asked in amazement, pointedly trying 'not' to look at the toilet.

"Probably the same place as all that crap," Souji replied, giving a weak gesture towards the bowl beside him. Then he shifted his gaze towards the door that he couldn't really see.

"Here, get out of the stall and let me get some cleaning done. The cleaning crew will have kittens if they see this mess, and don't worry about strangers coming in. I got a sign outside the door and Chie's running interference." Strange that back in Junes Yosuke seemed to have suddenly grabbed the reins of the situations and took control. But Souji wasn't in any condition to think of anything, instead allowing the teen to help him up and move him to the floor. Which he allowed himself to lay down on the cool tiles and let his thoughts drift along clouds of midnight black and royal blues. His stomach was settling down now that the vomiting session had finally come to an end. His throat was raw and his eyes painfully dry, but the voice that spoke in the back of his mind was also silent. Souji couldn't help but wonder why that voice spoke at all.

Who was that voice? The voice was strange, a young actor playing an older role, someone who was old and yet young? No high energy was in that voice as he would reason a child or a teenager would. Even a young adult's voice was different, this voice was speaking with age and yet didn't sound elderly.

"How you holding up there Souji-kun?" Yosuke asked, absent from sight due to his working on the toilet.

"'Souji-kun'? When did we get so close?" Souji asked, turning his pained eyes towards the stall. The blond stuck his head out of the toilet and gave Souji this leveled look, one that hinted hard about what they had just went through.

"After everything we just went through?"

Souji would have nodded, but his head would have been bashing itself on the floor, at least that's how it felt to him at the moment. Instead he cracked a sardonic smile and a weak chuckle. "Yeah, you have a point there Yosuke-kun. You have a point there..."

Yosuke nodded before going back to work, when the cellphone in Souji's pants pocket went off, both ringing and in vibration. He wanted to ignore it personally, but he was afraid that if he did he would forget about it later. If it was important then he probably needed it now. Sluggishly he stuck his hand into the pocket, feeling the smooth firm curves of his cellphone. Pulling it out as it stopped ringing he gave the small outer screen a glance.

'1 Text Message: Igor'

How?

But even as he flipped open the phone, another message presented itself in the form of a new voice mail recording.

_Your Tower is falling. How will you rebuild yourself?_

The text made little to no sense. Then again it seemed to fit with Igor and his wild mad gaze.

He dialed out for his voice mail and typed in his password, wondering who or what left him this message.

"...gift... might help... be careful..." One would have thought that someone had made an attempt to scrub out the message. Scratchy tones that shook into incoherent hisses before returning gave a feeling that whatever help he might have had, couldn't reach into Inaba.

He went back to his text mail box, seeking out the message from Igor. Though there was no real purpose to that, after all he wasn't in any condition to actually understand. He had never been one to bother with mysticism, he had been busy with the physical world. But as he laid there, his thumb pressed against the keys to bring up his inbox, he found himself frowning. Igor's message was dissolving even as he watched. The pixels were dying out one at a time all over the name and subject head.

Souji hurriedly pressed to access the message, the message before had been cryptic, but with the body of the message dissolving like the rest...

..u. ….r .. …..in.. H.. …. … .e...l. …...l.

Souji shut his cellphone closed and looked up at the ceiling before him as he laid on the cool tiled floor in a Junes restroom. He thought about the warning his mom had given him, about the strange dreams he had, the headaches, the image of Yamano on the television only to have her life cut short. He thought about the sleeping pills, the accusations from Yosuke about the monsters, the television and the voice in his mind.

He was the one who would open the door?

The door to hell? Could that be possible?

He pushed himself up from the ground and sat slumped on the floor.

"What wilist thou do?"

The voice in his head again, that quiet yet curious tone of voice that had had spoken once that night and now in the restroom.

What would he do? He couldn't go anywhere for a year, and this was defying all that he understood of how reality worked. Would he run for a year? There was no where for him to run to. So what could he do?

His fingers tightened their hold on his cellphone before he decided on his answer. Something tried to drag him to his death in that other world, he couldn't accept defeat of such nature. Defeated before he understood? Defeated before he even knew what he was facing? No, he would fight. The future was what he would make of it, right or wrong, success or failure. Somehow someway, he wouldn't stick his head in the sand as Yosuke had, nor give in to this being the 'norm' as Chie apparently had.

Hell was for those who needed fear to motivate them to do the right thing.

Inaba wasn't going to be his hell.

"Hey! Is Seta-san ok in there?" Chie's voice could be heard on the other side of the restroom door, her words punctured with a knock.

"I got it," Souji told Yosuke who was doing the finishing touches on getting the blood out of the stall. He walked to the door and pulled it open a bit, looking down at the honey blond girl staring up at him in naked concern. It was rather heart warming to see that look on her face and it caused him to soften his own expression. "We're almost done in here, are you ok Chie-chan?"

"Oh," she began, clearly surprised at the less formal use of her name. Her lips quirked into a brave front as she mustered up a "just tired, but you..."

"I just need to go back to my uncle's, a nights' rest might do me some good."

He watched her eyebrow quirk into a 'yeah right' sort of way and he remembered all the blood he had hacked up. "Seriously?"

"Thank you for your concern, but I'll be fine. But there is the problem about leaving here without creating some concern. What with well," he tugged at the blood stained collar of his shirt.

"Oh no one will care about that," she dismissed with a wave of the hand, before it shifted into an apologetic look. "Actually, what Yosuke-kun mentioned before plays into why no one would care."

He found himself leaning against the door frame of the restroom door, looking down at Chie with a frown clear on his face. His whole being expressed the question he wanted to ask, regretting his state of being where he couldn't just grill her for answers. "Ok, the monsters? What's that about then?"

"I'm telling you I don't know... We have a coming of age ceremony for children, when they reach that they start taking the sleeping pills, too. We've all tried to tried it out, not taking the pills and staying awake. But... for the most part, it's better to just go to sleep."

She was squirming where she stood, her arms began folding across her chest, her eyes turned away and her head lowered. Signs that something dark must have happened back then when she 'tried to stay awake'. He would have pressed further, but they weren't in any state that it would have had good results. Instead he sighed and accepted what he couldn't change, at least not for now.


	9. Chapter 9

Silent Inaba

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta By:

A/N: LOL This turned a little different then what I was thinking about before.

/

The departure from Junes was anti-climatic. Yosuke merely went into the break room, hiding in the corner while he recovered. The corners of the building had a little more grime then he remembered, the lights a little less bright. But that could have just been his own exhaustion coupled with stress. Safe to say, being locked in an elevator at that moment had more of a sensation of a coffin being lowered into a grave then it had any right to.

Chie stood at the other side of the box, her hands in her pocket and rather relaxed save for the exhaustion she must have felt. He turned his attention towards her, both as a source of information and for the pleasure of it. She said that the sleep was a ritual, everyone was expected to sleep. But why? What was about the fog time that made people forcibly opt themselves to sleep? What came out during the fog time?

He wanted to ask her, inquire about this strange ritual, this even stranger place. Yet somehow he didn't feel she was the right person to ask. She gave in, went with the flow and accepted the status quo. He needed to breach that status, dig deeper if he was going to figure out what tried to kill him in the other world. The Other World itself. Oh and the voice in his head, because until that moment he had never had such a 'get me out of this thing' sensation overwhelm him as he did right at that moment.

Souji gripped the handrail in the elevator when there was a sudden sound about his head, a loud 'ding' as the elevator jerked to a stop on the ground floor. The fresh air made him momentarily forget he wanted to ask Chie some questions as he quick stepped his way out of the box. But he wasn't the only one out there, a few other boys from their school stood around, apparently waiting for the elevator themselves.

"Hey Chie-chan! You don't look so well," and the guys were apparently Chie's friends. Or male admirers. He stood to the side, his instinct to cut in and look after her was forcibly shut down as the guys were doing what he wanted to do. Worse yet, he didn't have the energy to contest them for that right. Chie looked over her shoulder at him, her eyes questioning him on his condition. At least she was thinking of him, despite being surrounded by guys who were in a better state then he was. Despite the annoyance it spurred in him, he nodded, letting her go with them. She apparently knew them well enough to go with them after all.

"? Thou art quick to be taken by a female."

"I'm not 'taken' by her. I just like her type," he grumbled as he pushed himself from the wall and unhooked the bag containing his umbrella from his side.

He felt an urge to ask questions, which was rather odd in and of itself. Asking questions that you know the answers to, then again this was probably a side effect of sharing his mind with whatever was inside him now. Souji felt what the stranger felt. "Who are you?"

The sense of a question, of his own mind pondering that question rose up and he began to wonder how much was the town's 'behavior'. How much was what Igor was talking about. Because they couldn't be connected, or Chie would have known about the man.

Leaving Souji alone in the rain heading towards a house that his uncle and cousin lived in. Stores that were closing up for the night were soulless eyes staring out of concrete faces that blurred behind rain drops. Eyes staring out at him from behind bushes, and tree limbs, whispers drowned out by the sound of rain fall. Puddles reflected light from street lamps and darkness above.

The sky was dark and between the darkness around him and his dark school uniform, he was soaked by more then a lone passing car. The dirt and blood on him felt like living tattoos, crawling on his body. The water was chilly, and he was going to have to draw himself a bath when he got back to the house. Though how was he going to avoid Nanako? The child didn't need to see the state Souji was in.

As Souji walked he tried to piece together Yosukes' story, comparing it to his own story. Yet Souji still had the voice from that night in his head talking, though rarely and Yosuke made no mention of verbal communication. Was it because of the music he was playing? Did that being speak to Yosuke? Or was it a being at all?

He dug into the jacket pocket, pulling out the key to the house that Dojima had given him. Closing the umbrella before slipping the key into the lock and letting himself into the house. The shoes were removed and put into their spot on the rack before he walked further into the house. Peering out of the entry way hoping that Nanako was absorbed in what she was watching. Souji was in luck, after their initial greetings she had gone back to watching a trivia show that was on.

Leaving him thankful as he quickly made his way up the stairs to get his things so he could take a bath. The clock on the wall showed it would soon be time for dinner and he wanted to be cleaned before his Uncle got home. 'If' he got home before dinner. But he couldn't escape from the Presence, not when stepping into the bath resulted in a surprised sensation.

It was as strange and different as it was normal and ritual. Every action, from reaching for the bottle of shampoo to rising off soap came with a wave of newness and curiosity. He had a desire to study everything he touched in the bright light of the bathroom. But then his attention was drawn to the water and all the grime being washed off him. Suddenly, what 'had' to be Nanako's rubber ducky, was more interesting. It was a bright yellow duck of sturdy rubber and wearing a little white ballerina outfit. It squeaked when he squeezed it and he almost put it in the water, until he saw the amount of grime around him.

Sighing, he quickly finished up the bath, he'd have to clean the tub out before dinner as well it seemed. Digging around the bathroom proved that for now, Dojima's reign still existed, there was only a box of girlish band-aids sitting around under the sink. In other words, mens' grooming supplies, bath room cleaning supplies and that one lone bright pink box of band aids, for life's owies.

Igor, that strange old man, had said that Souji had been forcibly redirected in his life's path. That was an interesting way to look at things. 'Redirected' rather then given an out right new one could imply several things, one being that this whole situation 'was' an option. But perhaps it was not originally an option with high probability of happening. Realistically speaking, if his parents had opted to stay in Inaba, he would have been raised here and probably have known about the fog. Removing him from the town took that option out, though he 'had' been here before, the fact that Uncle Dojima used to watch over him was proof of that.

His mother knew about this town, the town knew about what was going on in the area, but whatever 'it' was. The town didn't seem to see a reason to evacuate. It was that little fact that bothered Souji so much. If this town was so dangerous when the fog rolled in, then why didn't people leave town? It wasn't a situation that the world knew about so not only was it being kept a tight secret. But it was being tolerated. If that was the case, why? What was causing people to opt staying in a town that was considered dangerous?

People went crazy? Weird things happened? These were things that television thrived on, if that was going on in this town, then why not have it on air? Why didn't anyone post this on a media network? If the grown ups didn't the teenagers sure as hell would. How could there 'not' be a group born of the desire to air whatever madness happened in Inaba on national television? After all they were airing the affair for the world to see. They were letting the reporters in like it didn't matter. Then again, they could also have been drugging all those people, the same way they tried to drug him.

"Dinner is almost ready," the soft knock that accompanied the soft voice distracted Souji into turning his attention towards the door. Nodding uselessly before he found his own voice.

"Ok, thank you Nanako-chan," he called in answer, his silvery eyes focusing on the door roughly where he figured she would be standing at. Wondering at the same time where she ordered out and concerning himself with finishing up.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

She hadn't ordered out. Rather she made the meal herself, nothing that involved the stove or oven, a cold meal if anything. Yet, it bothered him to think of her cooking meals by herself, it resonated too strongly with himself and his upbringing. Was it a family thing? Leaving the child to fend for themselves? Despite his own fatigue he couldn't just sit at the table while she washed the dishes, the child so small that she was using a chair to reach the sink properly.

"Nanako-chan? Here, let me help you," he walked up behind her, watching her start in surprise and turn to look at him. Her eyes were hooded with nervousness as he took up a spot beside her, before looking down at the plate in her hand. "Do you want me to wash or dry?"

She was quiet for a moment, the room was painfully quiet of living inhabitants, the tv making up for the silence by providing the noise behind them. Dojima wasn't home, his uncle was still at the station working due to the murder. "I'll wash."

Her voice was so soft, so tiny it could have been overlooked had Souji not been waiting for an answer right at her side. But he nodded, taking up the towel she pointed out and beginning to dry off the plates themselves. With her guidance he was able to put the plates up in their proper locations, some which would have required Nanako moving that chair around a great deal.

"You know, I do this by myself when I'm living with my parents, I've been doing this since I was your age in fact."

She looked at him in surprise, her eyes showing a question she apparently didn't feel brave enough to ask. Instead she lowered her eyes and nodded before climbing down the chair and pushing it back to the kitchen table. Granted he wasn't a vocal person by choice, but her discreet to wallflower demure nature was enough to make him wonder. He didn't have his parents around and didn't end up this way, why was Nanako so shy?

He watched her leave, she still had time to watch the television since Souji had helped with the dishes. Where as he was exhausted from his trip through the Other World. The whole ritual of brushing his teeth felt as though it was brand new to him, a strange sensation to be sure. The usually generic mint had a stronger tang then he was used to. Waking him up as his muzzy brain pointed out how it was almost as though he was in a brand new body. The conversation from the night before took root in his brain again. He didn't have voices in his head before his arrival, and the voice implied that they were one and the same with a goal to 'open the door'.

He finally turned his gaze towards the mirror and stopped brushing his teeth. His eyes had always been a type of silvery color, unusual but accepted after some time. Now they were a sharp shade of gold, a color he never expected. Had his eyes been this color when he took the bath? Souji felt something waking up and stretching in the core of his chest. Something that was slipping through his blood stream like quicksilver taking over everything.

He should have been scared, fell away and run out of the bathroom, yet after today he couldn't find the energy to be afraid. In the back of his mind he could still see Yamano crying out for help as she was consumed by those spirits. Despite all that, he couldn't find the energy to move away. No matter how he felt, he was rooted to that spot in the bathroom. "Who are you?"

"Thou art I. I art thou. Must there be more?"

"Ah in a word? Yes." There was a feeling of chill on both his shoulders, as though someone had pushed 'away' from Souji and the chill that had been consuming his body now had a spot on both shoulders. As though someone stepped out of his body in fact, as the sensation of warmth slowly returned to him.

"I art thou, I know not of anything more," the words were oddly spoken. Not just in the old Japanese that he shouldn't have known, and yet did. The words themselves sounded as though someone was speaking into his ear, but was so faded it sounded like whispers.

"Is this hell?" Souji asked, a whimsical question that he had to ask for no greater purpose then to hear his own voice.

"He-ll?"

He could figure out the second question, the stranger didn't know of the word itself, nor knew of what it referred to. So whoever or whatever 'this' was, was not someone who knew about Christianity. Shinto's version of hell was Yomi, the land of the Dead. Though dead, it wasn't technically 'evil' just a place where everything rotted away. The cold began to sink into his back, the sense of a presence making Souji realize that whoever this being was, they were returning to him.

When the spirit had stepped out nothing had happened, but the moment the spirit returned he stole all Souji's warmth, causing goosebumps to race up his legs his spine to the back of his neck, down his arms, turning his vision gray. Like a puppet his hand snapped out catching himself before he hit the side of the sink on his way down. From there the puppet continued.

Eerily he was pulled up to his feet, a glance in the mirror proved his eyes to be pure gold now, before he was walked up the stairs. There were no words between them, Souji could barely see the world around him as he was moved along. Left foot, right foot, left foot over and over again up the stairs with a flailing attempt at grabbing the door knob. His mental questions were left unanswered as he walked into his room, so the spirit knew to a degree what was what. The futon was pulled out in a clumsy manner, with Souji being placed in it.

The last thing Souji saw before he closed his eyes was a box on the coffee table in his room. Glowing a rich royal blue. The kind of blue that made him think of the Velvet Room and the last messages he received from that place.

'U R in Hell.'


	10. Chapter 10

Silent Inaba

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta: … Maybe I should just be merciful and not bother with a Beta. No one needs to deal with this much work.

A/N: So now we have shout outs! I'm going to do shout outs to other series among other things. Today's shout out? Avenue Q.

He woke uncomfortably positioned on his couch. A blanket had been lazily draped over his form, a series of books had been left in front of him. Souji rubbed his eyes and a look to the left showed the small coffee table was littered with cards that he didn't own. All the cards were face down with a lone card resting in the center with two other face down cards resting close to it. Turning his body to study the cards more closely allowed for something on his lap to fall to floor. Picking up a manga that he read when he was much younger. Closing the manga he put it aside to study the cards on his table, the dark theme of the cards clearly weren't his.

The back of the decks' design showed a featureless face, split down the middle in black and white a card of duality. The base color was various shades of blue with black and a muted white, a checked blue and black background with a flare effect of black and white like a sun. The oval shape held an even series of spikes that reached halfway to the edge of the oval while the face rested upon it. What could be considered wire work framed the cards and they were scattered all about the table, while the center card was the lone upright.

Reading 'The Fool' underneath a black silhouette, an archetype of someone hitting the road with faithful dog in attendance. With a silvery blue checker board background, he understood what the card was a part of, this wasn't just a dark brand of playing cards. It was a tarot deck, and the moment Souji touched the Fool to pick it up, the first thing he smelled was the same manufactured air he smelled in that dream as well as the bitter sharp tang of blood on his tongue.

"So this is Igor's 'gift'..." Souji noted as he reached for the two nearest cards to the Fool. They turned into smoke rising into the air as others began to turn into smoke. They rose as high as eye level before slipping down like a liquid down a funnel, into the shape of a harmless small box sitting in the center of that table. He never studied the occult, and he wasn't big on letting his uncle see him towing such books into the house.

God praise the Internet, it was now for more then just porn.

But that would be later, his alarm suddenly went off with such a loud squawk which meant he woke up early.

It also meant that he felt that strange being inside him start in surprise and the untimely death of his alarm clock. He sat there with wide eyes for a moment or three, watching as sparks shot out into arcs briefly and as the small snake like fingers of smoke rose into the air.

"Really?"

"Twas for both our protection?" Because apparently this being was a quick study, since there was a subtle sense of inquire and confusion mixing into the slowly lowering alarm sense.

"It was an 'alarm clock'."

"Truly, for I art most alarmed..."

"It's purpose is to wake me up in the mornings."

"For what purpose does thou think the sun rising as?"

"A pretty walk to school because I can easily sleep through sunrise?"

There was a very long pause...

"Twould seem I hast made an error in mine judgment, however; I art unused to such methods and only sought our safety."

Souji ran a hand through his hair, he could use his cellphone or buy a new one easily enough, so instead he let his eyes go back to the books around him. "And this would be?"

"Twould be wise to learn of this modern age, yes?"

"Yet I find a manga in my lap," Souji countered with a smirk as he got up, putting the books up quickly before getting ready for school.

"Man-ga?"

"Yeah, that's what this is... It's a... book that tells a story through images and words," Souji explained, before it occurred to him that he was talking to a voice in his head.

"I see..."

"I'm talking to a voice in my head," Souji shook his head in self depreciation even as he felt the questioning concern from that voice. "Ok, so what's your name?"

"I art thou, thou art I."

"That is not a name," however; there 'was' a strange sense of evasiveness to that question. Did that voice know who it was? Because Souji was dead sure it wasn't that he was going nuts.

"I art aware of that," the voice snapped, a type of concern at something it was hiding. A lack of knowledge, self awareness that was lost was being asked to be produced. The shame that came from that lack of knowledge bothered him.

Souji didn't say anything to the reply, instead his feelings told him what he needed to know. He shook his head in the end, deciding to let the being be for a while.

"Thine kin seems attracted to a certain toy she saw upon the magic box. I..."

"Wait..." Souji stood shirtless, the school uniform hung loose in his fingers as he 'heard' that. "Where was I?"

"Thou fell into a light slumber in the bathing room. The child insist that thee come out for thine meal. I left in thine stead, I art not so proud to say I followed thine person all that well. For all I did try to not scare thine kin, and she seemth to take it well... She did not scream."

"No, 'I' went out to eat, I remember that and helping with the dishes..." Souji blinked as he tried to remember what he had that night.

"'Light' slumber, thou drifted between the waking and sleeping worlds, for that I knew some of what needeth to be done. Mayhap thou saw mine actions and mistaken them for thee, but the truth is a little..." and Souji found himself shrugging for no reason save that the spirit was shrugging. An act that brought chills to his spine as he realized just 'how' close the connection between them was.

He began sliding his arms through the sleeves and noted the way it felt seemed different, much akin to how he thought before. Everything felt 'new' to him, as though he had never experienced such things before. Given the shrug, given the fact that he could lifted from his knees like a puppet on deeper thought, how much control did this nameless being have over him?

"How are you doing this? How can you make my body just 'move' without my consent?" Souji demanded, his tone hard enough to give this being a moment of pause.

The response that welled up was pure confusion and a little annoyance. "What be it that I doth have such a skill? Thou are willingly allowing this to continue, I art not the type to take that which does not belongth to I. Thou needeth help, I provide thee, if thou wished it not, would thou not state such?"

Souji had to pause and think on that, because i it was true. Souji had been in no condition to ya or nay what happened to him during those moments. This being didn't know who they were, beyond a male voice there was nothing. No past meant he lacked a present, as far as this being was concerned he was just...

"Ok, how do 'you' see this situation? Being in my body I mean," he finally asked, forcing his voice to calm itself. Instead of focusing on the being he focused further on getting ready for school, leaving the bedroom finally to go and use the bathroom. Only to find it being used by Nanako...

"Sorry..."

She was going to have to remember to lock the door and he was going to have to remember to 'knock'.

"Safety... within thee I feel safe. I know not of this world, these things, yet thou art aware of them. I awoke to find myself within thine body," the voice replied, as though shamed to admit fear.

'And the 'I art thou, thou art I' line you came up with?' Souji thought, to himself.

"Seemed suitably dramatic? I awoke with those words upon mine lips..."

Well apparently Souji didn't have to hold all his conversations out loud and look like a lunatic for doing so. Also apparently the being came preinstalled with some sense of humor that had an odd way of expressing itself, considering the situation.

Just as the being finished speaking the door opened and Nanako stuck her head out. She looked up at him with her overly shy and uncertain gaze before walking out the room. She was dressed and heading for the kitchen when Souji thought to ask her about the night before.

"Ummm. You were asleep, he came out and had dinner with me... He didn't seem bad...He helped with the dishes..." Nanako stood before the entry way of the house her posture subservient and timid. Something that still bothered Souji.

"Why do you think it wasn't me?" Souji asked, dropping down to one knee to see her better.

"Because you looked like you were sleep walking with your eyes open, and they were a mix of gold and red. Like how dad's eyes change when the fog comes," she answered before turning back towards the kitchen.

And that being felt so smug about being proven right, while Souji walked into the bathroom. But he didn't want Nanako to feel like he was hounding information out of her, she was clearly a guarded child. Her mother's death and father's work habits coupled with whatever happened during the fog had not broken her.

"Where be her mother?"

'She died when Nanako-chan was younger,' Souji explained feeling a sense of disbelief.

"'Younger' art thou's words? She be but a babe now! How much younger couldth thine kin be at the time? In her mother's womb?!"

Yep, voice had a solid grip on sarcasm. But he ignored it for the moment while he brushed his teeth, odd that he didn't need to pee or anything. Then again did the being know how to use the toilet? Maybe that being went for him during the night? But Souji didn't want to ask a million questions of the stranger and finally after he finished the last of his routine looked at himself fully in the mirror. 'Red and gold mixed eyes' were Nanako's words and Souji sought to see that gold.

Indeed as he inspected his eyes he saw small splotches of gold that should have been black. The gold was a surprise, but the feeling of that being growing curious took a new turn. Suddenly it was 'he' looking over the shoulder at his own body staring into the mirror as his own eyes turned completely red.

"That be gold?"

"I'm not in my own body... How..."

Souji would have panicked, save that the being turned to look directly at him, even if he had no reflection in the mirror. He was visible to this being, a being who looked confused and uncertain.

"Why art thou out of thin body? Tis empty without thine soul here."

"Uh I didn't go willingly, you pushed me out!" Souji replied, noting the look if surprise and confusion on his own face.

"I... I doth apologize, twas not mine intent. I... was merely curious, yet, thine kin doth said 'gold' that..."

Souji watched as the being turned to look at the mirror again, his eyes what had been white was now pink, the iris' were red like heated rock and the pupils were bordering black. It was strange standing in the bathroom of his uncle's house outside his own body, bizarre even. Leaving Souji, once again, wishing his mother had told him what she meant as he reached out to the being in growing concern. He wasn't sure if the being was just going to walk off and leave him. Not when he didn't know what the world was like to begin with. He felt the warmth of his own body and realized how cold he was where he stood, but in that moment of contact the being turned to look at him. A spark of energy numbed his hand as though he was being rebuffed from the contact. But the being reacted in surprise, before the being reached out and took the spirit hand.

This wouldn't do the being decided, his own words came back to him. 'I am thou, thou art I, thou art the one, who opens the door'. He didn't know who he was, he 'had' to stay with Souji if he was to survive to find out who he was and what this 'door' was. Instead he pulled that spirit hand into Souji's chest. "Just walk in to thine body, I see not why it would fail."

Trust men not to over analyze anything. Souji did as instructed, unsure if this was supposed to even work, but at least the being didn't add that he saw it on the 'magic box' or the manga. So there was 'that'.

Walking into his own body was far too dreamlike to him, yet that was what he was doing. Each time that being did anything before, it had felt like puppetry, and now he knew why. That being had never fully been 'inside' his body, just standing behind him over his shoulder almost. Because the moment Souji stepped in with that being he caught a glimpse of a whole new world. It was ozone and the numbness of electricity in every flex of a muscle, the twitch of a finger felt as though lightning had shot to that digit.

The air was sharp with the tang of new scents that he long since stopped noticing and it was in that amazement that he looked up at the mirror. Red pupils, gold iris and and there was just something 'else' that he couldn't name shimmering in the unique place where he and that being was meeting. It was a state that made him reach out to the mirror as though the answer could be found in the touch of that smooth surface.

"Um, is everything ok in there? I have to go to school," Nanako's voice broke into the moment before his fingers could touch the mirror.

"I'm fine, go on ahead," Souji called out even as he rushed the door. Damn he was going to be late wasn't he?


End file.
